Cavendish, Vermont Historic Timeline 1754-2018

Updated: January 3, 2019

elevation in southeastern Cavendish, now There is archeological evidence of human called Hawks Mountain. Soldiers traveling occupation at Jackson Gore in Ludlow that along this section of the road soon dates back 11,000 years, shortly after the ice complained of its roughness. Another route age ended. Judging from the tools bypassing Hawks Mountain was laid out uncovered, these hunter/gatherers were during the next spring. An encampment highly skilled craftsmen whose travels were twenty miles from Charlestown on the road far and included trading with other groups, gave the tributary of the Black River its as a high percentage of the stone used for present name Twenty Mile Stream. The the tools came from Maine. Cavendish Crown Point Rd had originally been an would have had Indians traveling through Indian trail. the area via the Black River and/or what became known as the Crown Point Rd. The 1761: Cavendish Charter signed by King Paleo-Indians would have stopped to fish George III of England on Oct. 12. The area and hunt game depending on the time of of land includes what is today, Cavendish year, and may have spent days or weeks and Proctorsville villages and Baltimore, here depending on whether food was VT. plentiful. They traveled hundreds of miles each year. 1769: John and Susanna Coffeen and their children are the first European settlers in Tools used about 5,000-7,000 years ago, Cavendish. Their home was located on the called the Archaic period, have been found Cavendish Reading Road, close to Brook in Cavendish fields, indicating there might Road. Not long after Coffeen settled in have been an “upland” Indian settlement Cavendish, he and his wife set out for away from the river. Charlestown, NH for supplies and grinding their grist. Due to a snow storm, the parents 1754: Just after the outbreak of the French did not return for six weeks. During this and Indian War, an Abenaki Indian raid on time, one of the Coffeen children became ill Charlestown, NH, Susannah Willard and died. The other children kept the body Johnson is captured with her family and in the house until the parents return, at marched to Saint-Francois-du-Lac, Quebec. which time, due to heavy snow, the body Being nine months pregnant, she gave birth was buried across the road from the house. to Elizabeth Captive Johnson in what is Coffeen decided that this would be the today Cavendish. The marker of this event family’s cemetery. Coffeens, Baldwins and appears in Reading, VT. at least four Revolutionary soldiers are buried there. 1759: Crown Point Road is built by the British, linking Fort Number 4 in 1775-1783: American Revolutionary War. Charlestown, NH to Fort Crown Point on In a new settlement like Cavendish, one of Lake Champlain. Major John Hawks and the first order of business would be to 250 rangers cleared a roughhewn road establish a militia for self-defense. Every through the forest. A path was cut across the able-bodied man would be a member, with one elected as Captain. These groups were • Coffeen was chosen to represent Vermont also called “training bands.” John Coffeen at the Windsor Convention to form a was captain of the first Cavendish Militia Constitution for the new State of Vermont in and during the Revolution was at the head of June of that year. a troop of Rangers. 1778: The earliest burial in town was that of When the Revolution came, these military Henry Proctor in the Old Revolutionary companies were called into action. Oliver Cemetery, located off of Brook Rd in Tarbell was captain of one of the “train Cavendish. The 1760 Crown Point Road bands” and the company met at the Tarbell passes to the right (north) of this cemetery. farm. In addition there were “alarm-lists,” which enumerated all the men between 14 1781: Salmon Dutton moved to Cavendish and 65 years of age, who were liable to be from Massachusetts. Dutton worked as a called upon in an emergency. Up until 1847, road surveyor, a justice of the peace, and the all able-bodied men between 18 and 45 treasurer of the town of Cavendish. His years of age, by law, were enrolled in the home was located on the Cavendish Green, militia and were required to do military and is now located at the Shelburne duty. Every man was required to keep arms Museum. He is buried in the Cavendish and equipment as needed for actual service, Village Cemetery on High Street. and for so doing, his poll was exempt from taxation. 1782: Capt. Leonard Proctor, a Revolutionary War veteran, moved his Susanna Coffeen was the only woman to family to Vermont. With his two sons (Jabez remain in Cavendish through the entire and John) he built a “shunpike” to the Revolutionary War period. village of Gassetts in nearby Chester to avoid paying the tolls of the Green 1777: Capt. Coffeen’s grain and grass fields, Mountain Turnpike. Salmon Dutton, helped as well as fledgling young orchard, were to build the Green Mountain Turnpike, destroyed when 300 New England troops which ran from Bellows Falls to Rutland, were stationed on his farm, while working bringing Boston coaches north up the on the Crown Point Road. Later in the year, Duttonsville Gulf to the village and then after the surrender of Crown Point and west along the present RT 131 (Main Street) Ticonderoga, militia, whose terms had through Proctorsville. The “shunpike” being expired or where discharged for misconduct, toll free resulted in North bound traffic from again encamped at Coffeen’s as they made Boston coming directly to Proctorsville and their way home. The tavern house, which bypassing Duttonsville. Coffeen had established, was immediately filled to overflowing. Those who could not Because of the road, the Dutton and Proctor get lodging inside, built fires with the boards families, as well as the villages of that Capt. Coffeen had procured for building Duttonsville and Proctorsville, feuded for 75 a large barn and house. They stripped his years. Proctor is buried in the Proctor home of nearly everything it contained and Cemetery off of Main Street in Proctorsville. the turned their horses into his grain. They • There were 35 “freeman” and their justified their actions by declaring that the families living in Cavendish enemy would do it themselves within 48 hours. Capt. Coffeen sent his family to 1784: The first saw and grist mill were relatives in Rindge, NH. For the remainder established in Cavendish on what is now of the summer, his house became a camp for known as Atherton Mill (Carlton Road). the vagrant soldiery, several of whom died under his roof.

1787: First physician in Cavendish, Asaph School (closed 1955); and Fittonsville Fletcher, settled near Proctorsville. School (Spring Mill). The town now has one school Cavendish Town Elementary School, 1790: Cavendish population 491 for grades K-6, located in Proctorsville on First burial in the Cavendish Village what was once the Proctorsville School site. cemetery on High Street. The land originally Middle school and high school students belonged to Salmon Dutton, but the town attend Green Mountain Union High School bought the land from several local people. in Chester.

1791: Vermont becomes the 14th state on 1800: Cavendish population 920 March 4. 1810: Cavendish population 1,295 1792: The Cavendish Academy (corner of High Street and Main Street Cavendish) 1811-1815: Spotted fever epidemic. Many was incorporated as the first Academy to be of the early settlers died, particularly the chartered in the State of Vermont. The first young and the old. The Pesthouse Cemetery, Academy school was kept in Salmon Dutton located on the upper end of Town-Farm Jr’s tavern building until 1812, when a two- Road was a place to bury those who died storied building was erected. In 1833, there from contagious disease such as small pox. were 70 students enrolled. The Academy The only marker in this cemetery is for was given up in 1853 and the building was Jotham Wheelock b 8-26-1763 d 4-27-1831. converted to a store. Today it houses RDB Marketing. 1805: The Mount Union, Center Road Cemetery, had its first burial. The land was 1793: Samuel Hutchinson Sr, who gave the obtained from several local citizens. land for The Twenty Mile Stream Cemetery in Proctorsville, buried the first person there, 1816: First burial in the Proctor Cemetery, his wife Abigail. which is located off of Main Street, in Proctorsville. The land was donated by the 1793: The Southeastern corner of Proctors and contains the graves of this Cavendish, containing about 3,000 acres of family. land, was incorporated separately into a new township , Baltimore. 1820: Cavendish population 1,551 people

1795: Cavendish. Center Road School on 1824 There were in the town a meeting- the corner of Town Farm Road and Center house, an academy, eleven school districts, Road adjacent to the Center Road Cemetery. nine school-houses, eight saw-mills, three From 1795 to present day, there have been grist-mills, four fulling-mills, three carding 13 public schools in Cavendish. Students machines, two woolen factories, one nail were assigned to the school closest to where factory, three tanneries, two distilleries, one they lived. In addition to Center Rd school, tinware and stove factory, one hat factory, which was closed in 1955, schools included: three stores and three taverns. (History of Proctorsville Village School (closed 1959); Windsor County, Vermont by Lewis C. Aldrich Duttonsville (closed 1972); Coffeen and Frank R Holmes, 1891) (Densmore) School (burned in 1922); Hudson School (burned down in 1901); 1828: Hillcrest Cemetery, located on Bailey Stockin School (half in Weathersfield); Hill Rd in Proctorsville, had its first burial. Parker School (closed 1911); Rumke School The land was obtained from the Proctors. (closed 1923); Tarbell Hill School (closed The tomb was built in 1897. Just before 1955); Bailey Hill (unorganized district); entering the Hillcrest Cemetery, there used Gilchrist School (closed 1947); Wheeler to be a “potter’s field.” During the interior columns of the main entrance of the Depression (1930’s), this area was plowed National Gallery of Art in Washington and used for planting potatoes. Only three (which opened in 1941) comes the graves remain in this area of the cemetery. Proctorsville Quarry. In 1989 the Ruby brothers, from Fair Haven, attempted to 1830: Cavendish was dotted with farms, open the quarry but did not have the corn and wheat fields and pastures for sheep. equipment to do so. In late 1990’s the The raising of hops was carried on for many Vermont Marble Company (owned by an years on some of the farms, until a disease Italian company) bought a 20 year lease to destroyed a great deal of it. remove stone. The quarry was worked for 3- - Cavendish population 1,498 4 years and then work ceased. During this time, stone was shipped for cutting to Italy, 1832: Black River Canal and Manufacturing Spain and Brazil. Company built in Cavendish. By 1842, they employed 175 workers making broadcloth. 1836: The Proctorsville Woolen Mill The building burned in 1873. Gay Brothers started. Failed in the panic of 1873-74 and Woolen Mills eventually built on this was not used for three years. It was property. reopened with new owners in 1877 and became known as the Crescent Woolen Mill. 1833: Fire District #1 is formed in Proctorsville and is staffed by volunteers. 1840: Cavendish population 1,427

1834: Second Baptist Church built in 1844: Universalist Church (Old Stone Cavendish. Extensive renovations were Church) built in Cavendish. This was the made to the brick structure in 1875, but the beginning of “snecked ashlar” buildings in building was destroyed by fire. The Baptist the town. This construction technique refers Church decided to relocate and the building to walls constructed with exterior and was sold to the town. Now the home of the interior surfaces composed of mortared Cavendish Historical Society Museum, the stone slabs arranged vertically on edge, tied building served as town office, community together with smaller horizontal slabs called and recreation center at various times. "snecks." The space between the wall surfaces was filled with rubble stone. Most 1835: Proctorsville Woolen Manufacturing of the stone buildings in Cavendish were Company, started by Jabez Proctor, constructed by Clark Wardner and John employed 35 workers, making cassimere Adams of Reading. They taught the trade to cloth by 1842. McGrath wdo did much of the work in

• The Cavendish Green Marble Quarry Twenty Mile Stream district. They used established in America for extraction of the mortar, made from native lime and had a green serpentine rock known in the stone secret formula for mixing it. Examples of industry as Verde Antique. The first site was “snecked ashlar” construction are present quarried in approximately 1835 by the Black throughout the town: Glimmerstone (Main River Marble and Soapstone Mfg company. Street); Black River Health Center; Roundy The original quarry was located on the Farm (corner of Wiley Hill Road and High Black River, near Winery Road at a place Street in Cavendish); Saydek home adjacent formerly called Hart’s Bend. It was moved to the Town Office; the Black River Bank up to its present location in 1931. The building on Depot Street in Proctorsville and Moriglioni family owned and operated the several homes on Twenty Mile Stream Rd. Quarry during this period. Marble was The stone for the various buildings was quarried from the late 1930’s through the mined in Cavendish. early 1950’s. The marble on the floors and 1845: Black River Bank is built on Depot days at my office-boarding at the Village St., Proctorsville Hotel. At that time I held the office of Secretary of the VT Senate- and our 1848: Phineas Gage, a foreman, was Governor-Hon. Ryland Fletcher, a brother working with his crew excavating rocks in of the late Hon. Richard Fletcher, of Boston, preparing the bed for the Rutland and and Judge of Mass. Sup. Court- now my new Burlington Railroad in Cavendish. An neighbor. Our Legislature at the previous accidental explosion of a charge he had set Oct. Session at Montpelier had passed an blew his tamping iron through his head. It act authroising Gov. Fletcher, in his entered under the left cheekbone and exited discretion to furnish funds to an amount not through the top of the head. His recovery exceeding twenty thousand dollars - from this injury and the impact on his life $20,000-for the relief of the suffering was the first well-documented case of citizens of Kansas-as you will find by traumatic brain injury in the medical reference to the session laws of 1856 in the literature. It was also the first understanding Library-Our state casual care of __ that different parts of the brain have General Gundry of Vergennes, VT had on different functions and effects on hand quite an amount of guns-out of date & personality. With this knowledge, the first useless to our State. Gundry was brain tumor removal operation became authorized to sell or dispose of them. In possible in 1885. some way John Brown had learned of these facts—and came here to examine the laws- 1848: The Rutland Railroad runs through and to confer with Gov. Fletcher. The Old both villages, connecting Burlington and man told us that the generosity of the people Boston. had so supplied the citizens of Kansas with food and clothing as none of this __ 1850: Cavendish population 1,576 appropriation would be thus needed, least be thought possibly the Gov. might be 1857: John Brown visits Proctorsville. authorized to let him have some of the old Henry Bridge Atherton wrote to John guns from the state Arsenal-He became Brown’s autobiographer about this visit in satisfied on looking at the law, that Gov. 1882. Proctorsville, VT Mary 9th, 1882 Fletcher could not appropriate guns for the

James Redparth Esq Defense of Freedom in the direction indicated. The Old man told us his I have sometimes thought the day would objectives to enlist young men-pious and come where your publishers would issue patriotic determined young men-not wild another edition of your “Public Life of John st and profane ones in his service and that he Brown,” which was 1 published at Boston proposed to rendezvous at Tabor in Iowa- in 1860 by Thayer and Eldridge 11 St and just over the boarders from Kansas and 116 Washington St. I have been recently await events. He showed me the enlistment reading that book, and it occurs to me that, papers as drawn up by him and most neatly inview of the events following the execution executed. He said he expected on the return of the old hero-the man-the freedom of the of Spring in 1857- the Missourians- slave, the political results of the execution- becoming supplied themselves with a new and the history of our country in the past stock of whiskey, would again invade quarter of a century-you might perhaps to Kansas-and he wishes to be ready to repel write that book and, if so, I would want a them. He said that courage of those invaders copy to side by side with the copy I now depended very much on the amount of have in my library. John Brown and his son, whiskey they had. He was very Owen, I think it was, came here in the last conscientious-writing at my office table days of Dec. 1856 or in the early part of many letters in the time he was here. I January 1857- and spent some time on those offered him paper, envelopes—postage stamps-and he always left the dimes in the $15,000 was borrowed to pay the balance of box to pay for them. The son was a light the war debt. From a compilation made by complexioned and sandy haired youth as the Hon. Calvin French we give the compared with the father-they had the following figures : Cavendish furnished to chains with them-that the borders…. the armies of the Union twenty men in response to the first call for troops for three 1858: Emily Dutton marries Redfield months' service. In the Second, Eleventh, Proctor, ending a 75-year feud between the Fourth, Seventh aud Fifth Vermont villages of Cavendish and Proctorsville. The Regiments, forty-two men for three years' merger of these families proved to be service. These volunteers received no important to Vermont, since three governors bounties Forty-two men were furnished and a United States Senator issued from this under the nine months call. For subsequent Dutton-Proctor line. calls fifty-three men were furnished for three

• The Proctorsville Library Association years, and thirty for one year, making a formed. Redfield Proctor elected librarian grand total of 187 volunteers furnished by and clerk. The Hon. Richard Fletcher, of the town, whose terms of service would Boston Mass made a donation of books the amount to 3521^ years for one man. Of following year. these 125 volunteers received bounties amounting to $43,550, the others being 1860: Irish railroad workers, who settled in recruited before it was necessary to offer a Cavendish, form the Catholic Church in bounty. As early as 1867 a movement was Proctorsville. inaugurated to erect a soldiers' monument in Cavendish, but it was not successful. In • Cavendish population 1,509 May, 1883, the present secretary of war, Redfield Proctor, presented his native town 1861-1865 Civil War Era: Prior to the War, with a fine white marble monument, suitably Cavendish becomes part of the eastern trunk inscribed and surmounted with an eagle. of the Underground Railroad between The town at this time appropriated $1,000 to Brattleboro and Montpelier. grade the lot and pay the expense of the • In the War of the Union. — The first action dedication of the monument. History of taken by the town in reference to the late Windsor County, edited by Lewis Cass civil war was at a town meeting held April Aldrich and Frank R. Holmes, 1891

30, 1861, Governor Ryland Fletcher • Tom Seaver, William Sperry and Daniel presiding. It was then voted to raise $2,000 Davis Wheeler all receive the Congressional to liquidate all obligations incurred by Medal of Honor for their service during the Captain Tuttle in raising the Cavendish war. Light Infantry, and to pay the board of the men and furnish support to their families. 1867: Fitton Mill (Spring Mill) established Another loan of $3,000 was authorized in and soon became the largest mill in the area. August, 1862, to pay bounties for nine The Mill complex was destroyed by arson in months' volunteers, and in November of the 1875. Remains of the Mill can be seen in the following year a bounty of $200 was offered area just before the Cavendish Gorge. for volunteers, which was subsequently increased to $300, and another loan of 1869: At a special town meeting held $4,000 negotiated. During the latter part of October 18, 1869, the town accepted of the 1863 the bounty was increased to $500, to gift of Hon. Richard Fletcher, of Boston, make it possible to fill the town quota, and Mass., of 2,600 volumes and the interest the selectmen were authorized to raise accruing on $2,000, for the permanent $10,000 to pay the expense of future calls establishment of a library, which was named for volunteers. In January, 1865, another in honor of the generous donor. The loan of $7,000 was made, and in 1867 question of the location of the library caused Taft, Burbank and Murdock. It was known a great deal of jealousy among the people of as the Crescent Mill but would eventually be the villages of Cavendish and Proctorsville, known as Murdock’s Mill the inhabitants of the latter desiring the establishment of a branch in that village, 1880: Cavendish population 1,276 This which was at first refused by a vote of 138 significant decline can be attributed to against, to 119 in favor. Tile library was several factors-the westward expansion and first established at the house of Luke lack of work. Parkhurst, then town clerk. History of Windsor County, edited by Lewis Cass 1883: Civil War Memorial, donated by Aldrich and Frank R. Holmes, 1891 Vermont’s Former governor Redfield

• The flood of 1869 destroyed New City. Proctor, is dedicated. This memorial is in This area was located four miles from front of the Cavendish Historical Society Museum. Cavendish village near Weathersfield. As early as 1856, wooden ware was • Fire District # 2 is formed in Cavendish manufactured there. Newspaper accounts and is staffed by all volunteers. indicate that some form of settlement was in place by 1845. The 1855 Dotton map shows 1886: The Gay family moves its woolen three building, with one marked ‘sawmill.” mill operations from Tunbridge to New City is an example of an area that, Cavendish. according to the usual pattern of New • A local group of Odd Fellow (I.O.O.F. Mt. England settlement, would not be inhabited. Sinai Lodge No. 22) is organized in It was ignored in the early days. Far from Proctorsville. other settlements, deep in a narrow valley, subject to flooding, it does not make sense 1890: Cavendish Population 1,172 to live there unless an economic situation provides incentive. Only prosperity would 1900: Cavendish Population 1,352 allow investors to develop the normally undesirable spot. The promise of good 1905: The Claremont Power Company waterpower during a boom time must have began construction of the Cavendish Hydro caused the essential optimism to seek a Station on the Black River. The dam was “New City.” This area was an example of th built in 1907, at the entrance to the gorge, 19 century waterpower manufacturing and operation of the hydro station began that boom and related domestic sites that are no same year. longer operating or even standing. With the elimination of a boom time that demanded 1907: Proctorsville becomes part of the cut lumber and wooden ware, there was no town of Cavendish. other reason for industrial operations. CHS Archives. 1909: Electric light poles started being installed in Cavendish and Whitesville. 1870: Cavendish registered the highest Electric lights were installed in the Town population in its history with 1,823 people. Hall in 1910, but it took until the 1940’s and some stretches even later, for electricity to 1875: Baptist Church (now the Historical be available town wide. Society Museum) and Alonzo Mills are burned. 1910: Cavendish population 1,208 • The telephone comes to Vermont. There is 1877: The Proctorsville Woolen mill is evidence that Ludlow Telephone was in reorganized and becomes the second largest operation by 1913. Because of the costs, mill in Vermont under the management of telephone service was slow to come to the rural areas. Most places had phone service ended up protruding over the edge of a high by the mid 1940’s. Ludlow Telephone sandbank. Redfield Proctor, former Vermont Company was eventually sold to TDS governor, offered $10,000 to restore the Telecom in the 1990’s. schoolhouse. Olin Gay, Chairman of the School Board, proposed using this gift to 1911: Activities for the 150th anniversary of move the school to a new location. He also the signing of the Cavendish Charter are proposed that the town raise an additional postponed due to a small pox epidemic. $5,000 by taxes to put in an auditorium Festivities are held in 1912, which are basement, modernize the heating system and documented in “The Vermonter.” install toilets. The school building was moved on big rollers by oxen and horses 400 1914: Proctor Piper State Forest, with the feet back to a safer location. It had much donation of 424 acres, established. A second better facilities than before the flood. A gift from Leon S. Gay in the mid 1930’s Vermont Standard School until 1928, thanks added 300 acres and additional purchases of to the renovations after the flood, property added another 700 acres. Duttonsville was upgraded to a “Superior School,” a status it retained until closing in 1917-1919 (WWI): 57 men and one woman 1971. from Cavendish joined the military. The flu • President Calvin Coolidge telegraphs his epidemic of 1918 took the lives of three of cousin, Park Pollard, after the flood, wanting the four Cavendish servicemen that were to to know what he can do for Cavendish. He die during the war. Food and coal rationing sent Herbert Hoover, his Secretary of were required. The latter was not an issue Commerce, to visit the region and to make for local farmers, who burned wood, but it recommendations. Two Army engineers was difficult for those in the villages. came to give technical help about relocating Daylight Saving Time was started on April the state road 1, 1918. • Charles Lindbergh flies over Cavendish

The mills were operating at full tilt for the • Radio Station WLAK begins in Bellows war effort. Business was in a boom period Falls. Cavendish has radio service. Many through 1920. Most of the Cavendish farmers make their own “crystal” radios. servicemen returned home. They would use their car batteries to power them. 1918: Cavendish elected its first woman • Murdock’s Mill now becomes Proctor Mill selectman, Gertrude Foster.

1928: In September, almost ten months after 1920: Cavendish population 1,319 the flood, President Coolidge comes to

Cavendish to view the damage. He looked at 1923: WWI Memorial dedicated in the washed out areas, but characteristically, Proctorsville. Redfield Proctor, Jr donated did not say much. the monument.

1929: Stock market crash. This did not have 1927: The largest flood on record in an immediate impact on Cavendish. Few Vermont caused heavy damage in the Black people had investments to lose, and for the River Valley, particularly Cavendish. A Gay Brothers Woolen Mill, 1929 was the quarter mile long channel avulsion best year, financially, in the history of their bypassing the Cavendish Gorge eroded business. It took several years before the approximately 2 million tons of sediment depression was felt. Cash was scarce, but for down to bedrock leaving a channel 150 feed many farmers, that had always been the deep and 600 feet wide. Seven houses were washed away and the Duttonsville School case. Frugality was part of the depression, students over 16 were asked to work at the but it wasn’t caused by it. mill whenever possible.

• Due to its proximity to Precision Valley, as 1930: Cavendish Population 1,418 well as the mills in the Villages, Cavendish was viewed as being at risk for enemy 1932: Black Bear Woolen Mill replaces bombing. Three spotter towers were erected Proctor Mill and operates until 1937. Even and were staffed by volunteers (women, though the mill functions was thought to be high school students, and men not in the productive, it closes in 1937 possibility service) 24 hours a day, seven days a week. because of union strikes the year before. The The towers were located above the building is sold to Proctorsville and is never Duttonsville School, across from Moonlite used for textiles again. It was eventually Meadows Farm, on East Road, and at the used by Proctor Reels to make reels and end of Blood Terrace off of Maple Street in furniture. Proctorsville.

1933: A Civilian Conservation Corps camp 1946: Allen Wilcox becomes the first town was established in the Proctor-Piper Forest manager hired. Each year the town would in Proctorsville. One hundred twenty five vote whether they wanted a paid town unmarried men, between the ages of 18-25, manager. Some years they had one and came from New York to join local men in many years they didn’t. From 1951-1955 clearing trails for horse back riding and there was no town manager and in 1956 was hiking and to create a recreational area. passed by a margin of 5 votes. In 1960, * National Black River Bank is closed in Donald Ellison became town manager and March and re opens in Sept. As the Black held the post for quite some time. River Branch of the Windsor County Bank. 1950: Cavendish population 1,374 1938: A hurricane struck the Town. The Dutton House moved from the Cavendish winds blew down thousands of trees, Green to the Shelburne Museum. blocking nearly every road. 1950-1953: Korean War. Fifty four men 1940: Cavendish Population 1,398 from Cavendish served in this war. All returned home safely. 1941-1945 WWII Era: One hundred and sixty-eight men and one woman served in 1951: Gay Brothers Mill closes. The mill is the war. Imogene Baxendale served as an sold to F. C. Hyuck and Sons and becomes Army nurse. Six men were killed in action known as Kenwood Mills. and several were wounded. They served in every branch of the armed services and in 1953: Rutland Railroad stops passenger nearly every area where American soldiers, service, ending passenger service in sailors and flyers were sent. Proctorsville and Cavendish. Depots in both • Gay Brothers Mill was described as “the towns are dismantled. chief war industry of the town where 300 people worked producing 30,000 yards of 1954: First Television set comes to woolen blankets, Navy uniform cloth and Cavendish. Vermont’s first television Khaki flannels each week for the United station, was established in 1954 when States Government. 37% of the workers WCAX-TV began broadcasting from served in the military. In need of workers, Burlington. Joseph Warren on Twenty Mile women worked in the mills, many men had Stream owned the first TV set in Cavendish. second jobs there and all high school 1955: Cavendish Historical Society is still open, but will close in 1971. As the established. Atherton Bemis is the first Cavendish village students enter the school president. in Proctorsville, the school becomes known as the Cavendish Town Elementary School. • Cavendish Town Office built in its current location on High Street in Cavendish. • Cavendish Population 1,223, the lowest since 1910.

1956-1957: Physician serving the • New Route 103 extension added, no longer Cavendish/Proctorsville area dies. Two fatal requiring traffic to go down Proctorsville’s car accidents occurred and Cavendish found Depot Street to a stop light, where drivers they could not rely on Ludlow for medical turned left for Ludlow or right for coverage. Community leaders meet with the Cavendish. Depot Street becomes a town University of Vermont Medical School road and no longer a state highway. about the situation. They were advised to equip a medical office and then solicit for a 1961: The town celebrates its 200th physician. Kenwood Mills, who purchased anniversary. Gay Brothers Mills and its holdings in 1951, donates the stone building to help form the 1962: Mack Molding opens in the Gay’s new Black River Health Center. Members of Brother Mill complex. the community donated their time to renovate the building. Workers at Kenwood 1963-1973: Vietnam War Era. Sixty four Mills had $1 a week withheld from their pay men and three women (Harriet Dockum, to help establish the Health Center. Dr. Linda Tyrell and Rachel Strong) served in Eugene Bont and Dr. Lawrence Bixby set up this conflict. practice. 1967: On December 12, the voters of the 1957: Kenwood Mills, formerly Gay Cavendish Town School District approved, Brothers Woolen Mill, once the leading by a margin of 122 to 73, the formation of a employer for the town is sold and closed by union high school district, grades 7-12, with the new owners. the town School Districts of Andover and • Passenger and freight train service no Chester and the Duttonsville Independent longer available in Cavendish. School District.

• Art Briggs is elected Fire Chief for Fire District #2 (Cavendish). With his experience 1969: Lawrence Kelly Jr. Opened the fighting fires in WWII, he creates a well Chopping Block, in Proctorsville. This was a organized group and legally incorporates the popular nightclub at the intersection of 103 Fire Department. An active Auxiliary is and 131. formed. Prior to Briggs arrival, Cavendish stored fire fighting equipment at various 1970: Cavendish population 1,264 locations in town and depended heavily on The Cavendish Historical Society leases the Fire District #1 and the Gay Brothers Mill old town hall building for its Museum. for putting out fires. Shortly thereafter, the Old Stone Church (Universalist Church) is leased to the Historical Society for preservation. • Hawks Mountain Fire, which started on the Cavendish side and spread to Perkinsville. • Vermont passes Act 250, known as the The National Guard had to be called for Land Use and Development Act, as a result help. The fire started on May 7 and wasn’t of the increasing development of resort and fully extinguished until May 11. second home housing. This expansion was putting a heavy burden on small towns, 1960: The new Proctorsville Elementary particularly in the southern part of the state, School building opens. Duttonsville School who would need to significantly expand infrastructures to meet the expansion. One 1978: Singleton’s general store opens on of the first projects was the Black River Main Street in Proctorsville. This marks the Estates off of Pratt Hill in Proctorsville. In beginning of the Proctorsville revitalization subsequent years, this law is used to stop effort. development thought to be inappropriate for Cavendish. 1979: Alexander Ginsburg joins Alexander Solzhenitsyn in Cavendish. He was one of 1972: The bank in Proctorsville, which the architects of the dissident movement in became part of VT National in 1964, closes. the Soviet Union in the 1960s and 1970s. A constant irritant to the KGB and its political 1973: Major flood, which washed out many masters, Ginsburg served three terms of roads and bridges. imprisonment for his activities. From 1960 to 1962 he was incarcerated in a labor camp. 1976: Solzhenitsyn, Nobel Prize winner and He was again arrested in 1967, and Soviet dissident, settles in Cavendish with sentenced to five years. In 1977, after 17 his wife, children and mother-in-law. His months of interrogation, he was tried and home becomes a place of refuge for other convicted of “anti-Soviet agitation”, and Soviet dissidents. sentenced to eight years. However, he and

• Green Mountain Union High School opens four fellow-dissidents were exchanged in in Chester. New York for two Soviet citizens who had been jailed in America for spying. • In honor of the country’s bicentennial, Cavendish Town Elementary School 1980: Cavendish population 1,355 changes its mascot from the Blue Devils to The Patriots. 1981: Lisa Ballantine becomes the first female fire fighter for the Cavendish Fire 1977: Cavendish and Weathersfield Department (District #2). residents learn that Springfield is planning to • The Southern Windsor/Windham Counties build a hydroelectric plant on the Black Solid Waste Management District is formed River from the media. Concerned Citizens in order to provide solid waste management of the Black River Valley (CCBRV) is authority, services, and planning to its formed to keep Springfield from building member towns, one of which is Cavendish. the generating project. Six units were proposed, the largest of which was Hawks 1982: The Mueller’s purchase the Okemo Mountain Dam located on the Ski area in Ludlow and begin to turn it into a Cavendish/Weathersfield town line. This resort. This will have a significant impact on dam would have been of earth fill Cavendish in subsequent years. The 1980s construction, 165 feet in height and 900 feet saw a new potential economy-tourism-as in length at the crest and would have flooded Okemo Mountain became a prominent ski five miles in Cavendish. CCBRV included area. Increasingly, people looked to citizens of the Towns of Cavendish, Cavendish for vacation and seasonal Weathersfield, and Springfield. Their slogan housing. Today, non-residents own 60% of was “Save the Valley.” the town’s property.

• Stepping Stones Preschool opens in • Acousti-Phase, the old mill building on Ludlow to serve area children. The school what is now the Proctorsville Green, burns will eventually move to a building on the down. border of Cavendish and Ludlow and today primarily serves Cavendish. 1985: Donna Blanchard is the first female fire fighter for the Proctorsville Fire Department. Her sister Amy was the second come to town to capture this event. Mike female fire fighter. Wallace, of “Sixty Minutes” is not allowed to use the Cavendish Post Office bathroom, 1986: Proctorsville ceases to be an because it is a Federal building. incorporated village and, with Vermont State Legislative approval, the governmental 1995: Sovernet Communications opens in entity is merged into the Town of Bellows Falls and offers internet access via Cavendish. “land lines.” The availability of internet service makes it possible for more people to 1987: Proctorsville’s water system has to be “telecommute” from home. abandoned due to contamination from road salt. Combined with the Cavendish 1996-1998: Proctorsville revitalizing Municipal Water system. projects undertaken. With matching funds and in-kind matches provided by the Town 1988: Dr. Bont and his wife Phyllis Bont, a and the private sector, the Town was able to nurse practitioner, leave Black River Health change the vacant Proctorsville mill site into Center to work at Albany Medical Center. In a handsome, well-designed village green the coming years, various medical groups with recreational space. Affordable housing try to establish a health center but are short is strategically placed adjacent to the green lived. The longest standing occupant since with the move of the historic Freeman the Bonts left has been Opportunities in House from next to the Cavendish Pointe Learning (OIL) a school for students who do Hotel to the Green in 1997. not function well in a regular classroom. In 2010, several mental health counselors set 1996: Act 60, also known as the Equal up their practices in the building. Many Educational Opportunity Act, is signed into people receive care via the Springfield law. The Legislature drafted the law in Medical Care Systems, which includes response to a Vermont Supreme Court federally qualified health care system at the decision that said Vermont's existing Ludlow Health Center and various offices in educational funding system was Springfield. unconstitutional. The court, in Brigham v.

• Richard Svec becomes town manager, a State of Vermont, concluded that the state position he holds until the beginning of must provide "substantially equal access" to 2017. He has now served longer than any education for all Vermont students, other town manager in Cavendish history. regardless of where they reside. Initially Cavendish is not impacted by the bill but in 1989-1990: Twenty eight Cavendish subsequent years, particularly with the residents served in the Lebanon and Granada growing resort second home owner conflicts. This included five women-Amy community associated with the mountain, and Donna Blanchard, Valerie Scales, residents started to be “taxed” out. Norma Westcott and Nicola Woodell. 2000: Cavendish population 1,470 1990: Cavendish population 1,323 2001: LPC-TV is launched. A public access 1991: Bi-Centennial of Vermont Statehood. television station for the towns of Ludlow, Cavendish celebrates with a parade. Plymouth and Cavendish, local school Solzhenitsyn is one of the speakers. board, select board and town meetings can now be seen on television along with other 1994: Solzhenitsyn returns to Russia with community events. This is made possible by his wife. Solzhenitsyn addresses Town Comcast. LPC-TV establishes a website Meeting and national media once again www,lpctv.org and is one of the few public access channels that includes the videos of events and meetings, which means people 2004: Cavendish Town Elementary School don’t have to be a subscriber to Comcast in has an extensive renovation and addition. order to watch events. • Village Center Designation is awarded to the villages of Cavendish and Proctorsville. • In response to 9/11-the destruction of the This designation offers a variety of benefits World Trade Center towers in New York including tax credits for historic buildings City and damage to the Pentagon, Cavendish and commercial properties renovating to churches hold an ecumenical service. Many code and priority consideration for certain knew people that were hurt and in at least types of state grants. one case killed. 2006: Outdoor classroom constructed at the 2002: McLean Quarry proposes to build a Cavendish Town Elementary School. quarry at the end of Tierney Road, which would extend onto route 131 (Main Street) 2007: Ancient Roads Committee Formed. between the two villages. Residents, whose - Old Home Day tradition begun by property who would be directly impacted by the Cavendish Historical Society. the proposed quarry, form Concerned Cavendish Citizens (CCC). Leaders of this 2008: The Cavendish Update becomes a group included Robin Timko, April Hensel, blog at www.cavendishvt.blogspot.com Will Hunter and Suzanne Meaney. When the quarry was finally defeated in 2006, CCC • Partnering with the Rockingham Area became CCCA (Cavendish Community and Land Trust (RALT), Cavendish develops a Conservation Association). CCCA, in variety of affordable housing-townhouses, addition to its conservation efforts, started apartments and senior housing-around the Proctorsville Green. the Cavendish Community Fund, which provides small grants to Cavendish • Alexander Solzhenitsyn dies in Russia and organizations and individuals. once again the town is inundated with reporters and television crews. A private As part of keeping people informed about town service is held to remember Quarry matters, Margo Caulfield started an Solzhenitsyn. electronic newsletter called “Quarry Update.” As there was limited local news 2009: New sidewalks and curbs are installed coverage for Cavendish, this e-mail in Proctorsville. The project took nine years newsletter evolved into the “Cavendish from grant application to project completion. Update,” which provides not only weekly • Water filtration project completed. A bond news but also is used in times of emergency. was passed in 2002, which began the town’s

efforts to improve water quality, due to high 2003: A Class I tornado, a ferocious storm levels of iron and manganese, as well as with heavy rain, lightning and very severe replace asbestos pipes and the Proctorsville winds, left a path of damage from the Black water tower. River all the way to Brook Road in

Cavendish. One mobile home was 2010: Cavendish population 1,367, a decline destroyed. Acres of trees were felled, of 7% from 2000. leaving town roads closed until clean up • The Cavendish Town Elementary School could take place. budget is now voted on by Australian Ballot • Act 68 is passed amending Act 60, to on Tuesday. Monday night’s Town Meeting relieve some of the burden placed on local now includes an informational meeting school districts. about the school’s budget.

2011: Tropical Storm Irene causes Church, also known as the “Stone Church.” considerable damage, including the loss of It’s purpose is to be for permanent home of several homes and millions of dollars worth the Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn exhibit as well of damage to the town’s infrastructure as small venue space for talks, theater, films, (water, sewer, electricity and power) as well concerts . The Universalist Church as roads. The flooding waters creates a Convention is held in at the Cavendish “canyon” similar to the one in 1927. A Stone Church in May. While a voice vote is shelter is open for 10 days at the Cavendish agreement to transfer the deed of the church Town Elementary School. One of its to the town, nothing is finalized by the end functions is to house the National Guard of the year. brought in to help rebuild the roads. In spite of the devastation, Cavendish holds a four • The entrance of Chubb Hill off of route day 250th anniversary celebration in 131 is moved so that it bisects Donnie October. While the parade route had to be Davis’s field. modified and shortened considerably, many • To reduce Cavendish’s carbon footprint, lined Depot Street, an area that sustained Zero sort recycling begins at the Cavendish heavy damage, and cheered. Transfer Station and enters into an • Cavendish VT Facebook page is started agreement with Soveren Solar of Putney to initially because of the events surrounding establish a 150 solar array on town property- the town’s 250th anniversary. It takes on a south facing slope just below the Cavendish new way for the town to communicate Waster Water facility. during Irene. 2014: A snowy and cold winter contributes 2012: At the end of the year, the to numerous fires, including the destruction Universalist Church agrees to transfer the of two historic homes on Main Street, one in deed of the Stone Church to the town. The each of the villages. The lot next to the actual transfer will take place on May 11, school, resulting from the fire in 2013. The building will be the future home Proctorsville, is purchased by the town and of the permanent Solzhenitsyn Exhibit and leased to the school for their use. will also serve as a small venue space for concerts, lectures, films, plays etc. • At Town Meeting, the voters approved a

• The Rutland Windsor Supervisory Union Cavendish Recreation Dept. by a narrow (Ludlow, Mt. Holly and Plymouth) merges margin. with the Windsor Southwest Supervisory Union (Chester,/Andover, Cavendish and • While Vermont Yankee, Vermont’s only Londonderry) to create the Two Rivers nuclear power plant, decides to close, Supervisory Union. Cavendish voters approve a $450,000 bond to develop a 150 kw solar power array to • Extensive rebuilding of the town’s offset the cost of the town utilities supplied infrastructure following Irene. Includes by Green Mountain Power. The solar array mountains of paperwork for the town offices is operational by Dec. 31 as they comply with FEMA and other agencies relating to the funding of the • Cavendish Connects is formed which recovery. offers the continuation of the Cavendish • Jim Ballentine, very active in town politics Update and Facebook page for many years, dies while serving as chair [www.facebook.com/cavendishvt] and adds of the Cavendish Selectboard. a community website [www.cavendishconnects.com]; Instagram 2013: In March, voters agree to accept the and Pinterest donation of the Cavendish Universalist [www.pinterest.com/cavendishvt] CC also conducts a telecommunications survey, out with equipment so that roads can remain which shows that many people are having clear during the remaining winter months. problems with cell and Internet service, with The Garage is torn down in August and the the latter being a reason for people not Select Board votes to relocate the gagage to moving to the town. an area south of town where the sand pits are located. • The first annual Abundance Swap, • Murdock’s a pub style restaurant opens on organized by Cavendish Connects, is held. the Proctorsville Green in what was once an old mill building. It is named after the mill 2015: By vote at Town Meeting, the owner Herbert T. Murdock Cavendish Cemetery Commission is • Voters approve to replace the wastewater dissolved, and the town’s seven cemeteries treatment plant aeration system. now come under the Select Board. • Voters in Cavendish, Chester, Andover, • An assistant town manager, Bruce and Baltimore vote to form the Green McEnaney is hired. Among his many duties Mountain Unified School District is Sexton (GMUSD). Ludlow is not part of this new • Peggy Svec retires from Cavendish Town district, but rather forms a new one with Mt. Elementary School. She taught at the school Holly. They are known as the Ludlow Mt for over 30 years. Holly Unified School District (LMHUSD). • A Telecommunications Committe is These two districts are now under the Two formed to address both the lack of Rivers Supervisory Union. broadband and diminished cell service. • Ludlow and Mt. Holly vote to close Black River Union High School (BRUHS), a 2016: Karlene Glidden is the first female to school which many people from Cavendish achieve life membership in the Proctorsville attended before the establishment of Green Volunteer Fire Dept., having served 20 years Mountain Union High School (GMUHS). with the PVFD. She serves as driver/pump The vote would be challenged but the revote operator. PVFD purchases Fast Attack truck in 2018 confirmed the decision to close in order to respond to emergency medical BRUHS. services calls. • Table 19 closes and is sold to Proctorsville • Richard Svec announces his retirement as residents who open “Neal’s Restaurant.” town manager. The Select Board hires Brendan McNamara whose first day will be 2018: Former Town manager, Rich Svec Jan. 3, 2017. dies suddenly just hours before town • Cavendish’s first winery and tasting room meeting on March 5. Hundreds attend opens at Brook Farm Vineyards off of Svec’s celebration of life and the 20th Twenty Mile Stream in Proctorsville. anniversary dedication of the the • At the end of the year, the Proctorsville Green on June 16. Telecommunications Communication • George Thomson, who has been the Committee learns that Comcast will apply principal at CTES for over 30 years, retires for state funding to expand services into as does the principal of GMUHS. underserved parts of town. Considerable controversy surrounds the • TDS wires the Tarbell Hill area of town for hiriting of Thomson’s replacement. Debra high speed Internet. Beaupre is hired. CTES’s school board is dissolved and all the decisions for the school 2017: A new town manager, Brendan are made by GMUSD, where Cavendish has McNamara, takes over from Rich Svec, who 3 representatives on an 11 member board. retires on Jan. 3 • Vail Ski Resort buys Okemo Mountain • Two fires strike on Feb. 15. While the Resort. Pollard family home is heavily damaged, the • Recreational marijuana becomes legal in Town Garage is destroyed. Other towns help Vermont. • Cavendish Streetscape Committee is businesses thrived as they provided services formed (Julia Gignoux, Martha Mott, to the farming community. The woolen mills Carolyn Solzhenitsyn, Rolf van Schaik) with made Cavendish a “company town” for a their first project being “Raise Our Flags.” while, but by the 1950s, they were closing The night of July 3, flags are hung along and the family farm was rapidly Main St. in Proctorsville. disappearing. Around this time, many • The largest solar array in VT is constructed people started looking elsewhere for work. between Ludlow and Cavendish on Barker The arrival of Mack Molding brought jobs Rd and contains 83,000 solar panels for some of the former Gay Brothers • Olive Kingsbury, the last member of the employees, but many were already working Kingsbury family on Chubb Hill, depicted in at the newly opened General Electric plant “Chubb Hill Farm and Cavendish Vermont: in Ludlow. A Family and Town History,” dies at 92 on Dec. 11. Today, in many ways, Cavendish has • The new Cavendish Town Garage is returned to its roots. With the arrival of the located across from the “sandpit” on the Internet age, there has been a blossoming of outskirts of the village. The town uses the small home-based businesses. While the old Black River Produce building as a early settlers produced items that were temporary location. The Select Board needed locally and in surrounding towns, provides funding for Cavendish Streetscapes thanks to the web, many of our current to refurbish the previous town garage site, businesses sell products and services all over which is to take place in 2019. the world. There is a growing artist • Mike Ripley resigns and Bobby Glidden community as well as a return to small becomes the town’s new emergency farming. Once again cows and sheep dot the coordinator. Cavendish landscape. • Late November, a severe early snow and ice storm causes a major power outage in For more information about Cavendish: town that lasts days, triggering the opening “Chubb Hill Farm and Cavendish Vermont: of the Cavendish Shelter, now located at the A Family and Town History 1876-1960” Cavendish Baptist Church. (includes an epilogue 1994) by Barbara B. • Cavendish celebrates the 100th anniversary Kingsbury This is available from the of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s birth. The letter Cavendish Historical Society and the Town sent to the People of Russia from the People Office. Books on genealogy and town of Cavendish becomes widely recognized history, as well as walking tours of and is replied to by the Russian Ambassador Proctorsville and Cavendish, are also to the USA. available at these locations.

Present: When Cavendish began, it was a Cavendish Historical Society Blog town of family farms-dairy and sheep. Small www.cavendishhistoricalsocietynews.blogspot.org