Shoppell’s House Plans

1887:

S.H. Sherman’s new house on High street is making rapid advancement, and when completed will be one of the finest residences in town. The plan is Shoppell’s No. 300. It will be the first building in town to be warmed by the Gurney hot water system.

https://www.mitchellspublications.com/rep/arch/shoppell/toc/

Reviews mention that these books of Victorian-era house plans are quite popular among restorers.


1892 Election

This Day in History 1892:

“A partial eclipse of the sun last week was watched by many Brattleboro people. The next eclipse will be that of the Democratic party, which occurs Nov. 8.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1892


Latino-Americans Film Series at Brooks Memorial Library Oct 28 & Nov 18 7 PM

Please join us on Wednesday, October 28, at 7 PM for a screening and discussion of the PBS Documentary, Latino Americans, Episode 1: Foreigners in Their Own Land. Discussion will be facilitated by Patricia Pedroza González, Lecturer, Keene State College.

The second film will be screened on Wednesday, November 18, at 7 PM. For more information email the Library (info@brookslibraryvt.org) or cal 802-254-5290 ext 101. Sponsored by the .

Parking for evening Library events: The Municipal Parking Lot behind the Library is available for free parking after 6 PM. 


Brattleboro Printing and Publishing Heritage

BRATTLEBORO PRINTING AND PUBLISHING HERITAGE MEETING

The Brattleboro Historical Society and Friends of Brooks Memorial Library are collaborating to generate ideas about how to increase community awareness and interest in Brattleboro’s 200-year printing and publishing heritage.

Community members interested in this topic are invited to a brainstorming meeting on Tuesday, September 15 at 7PM at the Brattleboro History Center in the Masonic Center at 196 Main Street.

The purpose of the meeting will be to gather ideas for ways to interest and engage our community in learning more about the influential roles that Brattleboro’s publishing and printing industries have played throughout our history.


Killed by A Horse’s Kick: Coincidence or Karma?

Major John Arms, leading early citizen and proprietor of Brattleboro’s notable gathering place known as the Arms Tavern (at the present Retreat farm) died from the kick of a horse on March 6, 1770. This is the very same day, 12 years before in 1758, that Captain Fairbank Moor and his son Benjamin were killed in an attack by Abenaki warriors at their cabin just a few hundred feet away (Brattleboro’s first settler outside of Fort Dummer). John Arms came from a family of frontierspeople and Indian fighters. Coincidence?


History of Brattleboro’s Main Street – Presentation

The Brattleboro Historical Society invites you to learn about the history of downtown Brattleboro.

Joe Rivers & Bill Holiday will present the History of Brattleboro’s Main Street on Friday, August 7 from 4:00 PM – 7:00 PM at the History Center on Main Street, Brattleboro.

All are welcome.

(Pictured: Ford Sales & Service at Main and High St., Brattleboro.)


Marriage Equality Wins!

The Supreme Court of the United States has declared that LGBTQ couples are now free to marry in all 50 states. This is huge!

A long, bitter and frustrating fight for equal rights has culminated in a victory. This is a wonderful day worthy of much celebration! Thank you SCOTUS for making the right decision.


From The History Sidebar, WOW

“1876:

Carl Ridle, a boy 14 years old, stole a tub of butter from J.W. Frost & Co’s store, and the next day carried it to Mr. Haynes produce store and offered it for sale. He was sentenced to the reform school for the
remainder of his minority.”

Times have changed, fortunately.  Still so much more to accomplish, though, in addressing crime and punishment.


Corporatists – The Men Who Stopped Time

Did you know that wealthy men are corporate men; and that poor men are also corporate men?

The first corporate man was an Abbott who ran a monastery. He considered his shareholders, namely the owners (the church), the physical plant (monastery) and the workers (monks and deacons), important enough to their continued success to devise a means to protect them all from liability. He did this by “incorporating” his monks into entities.It was royalty and aristocrats who took it a step further. They wrote and enacted laws for a chartered body to become a “corporation.” They then wrote the trade laws and granted exclusive rights to those chartered companies.


First Wednesday at Brooks Library: The Duel: Aaron Burr vs. Alexander Hamilton

Join us for First Wednesday on 6 May 2015, 7 pm – 9 pm for The Duel: Aaron Burr vs. Alexander Hamilton. Was it murder or suicide when the vice president of the United States killed the first secretary of the treasury in a duel? Willard Sterne Randall, award-winning biographer of Hamilton and five other Founding Fathers, tells this fascinating story.

Location Library Main Room. For more information contact Brooks Library by phone at 802-254-5290 ext 0, by email at info@brookslibraryvt.org, or on the web at brookslibraryvt.org. Brooks Memorial Library, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT 05301. The event is free and open to the public. 


Nellie Bly

was the pen name of American journalist Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman.[2] She was also a writer, industrialist, inventor, and a charity worker who was widely known for her record-breaking trip around the world in 72 days, in emulation of Jules Verne’s fictional character Phileas Fogg, and an exposé in which she faked insanity to study a mental institution from within.[3] She was a pioneer in her field, and launched a new kind of investigative journalism.[4]


Original Enigma No. 1, Another Word Puzzle From 1837

Alright, enigma fans. Here is another, from today’s Phoenix in 1837. This one is noted as “Original Enigma No. 1,” for what it is worth. Put on your thinking caps and try to solve this if you dare:

“Original Enigma, No. 1

I am a word of eleven letters, — and the title of a periodical in the United States.

My 2, 6, 5, 8, 4, 10, 7 and 1 is the name of a distinguished Indian chief.


Enigma, A Word Puzzle From 1837

I know that many of you like word puzzles. Here is one found in an 1837 copy of The Phoenix newspaper. Can you solve it? (The answer was not published with the puzzle. I may find it in coming weeks. I may not.)

 

“Enigma

I am a word of twenty two letters.


1886 Boiler Explosion on Frost Street

This was quite a story, on April 16, 1886. It had it all — an explosion, death, and destruction. The Phoenix devoted a full column to it, and even provided a small illustration showing the path of the flying boiler. I’ll get you started with the introduction to the story, and then provide a link if you’d like to read the full account.

“Last Tuesday afternoon at about 20 minutes past three the boiler at J. A. Church’s general wood-work factory and grist mill on Frost street burst with a terrific explosion, the result of which was the entire destruction of the one-story engine-house attached to the main shop, the partial wrecking of the rear portion of the main building, serious injury to R.D. Brown’s barn, the killing of a valuable horse, and the shaking up of things generally in that vicinity.


Estey Organ Company Exhibit At 1893 World’s Fair

Today, in 1893, the Estey Organ company was putting the finishing touches on their organs to be shipped to the World’s Fair in Chicago. The Phoenix reported on it thusly:

….

FOR THE WORLD’S FAIR

The Estey Organ Company’s Exhibit

A Description of the Beautiful Instruments Comprising their Display

Today the finishing touches are being put to the large and beautiful exhibit of instruments which the Estey Organ company are to send to the World’s Fair at Chicago, and it is the present plan of the company to have the organs en route to their place in the great exhibition to-morrow. Many workmen are very busy upon them, and our glance at the instruments was necessarily hasty and imperfect, but a short chapter of notes will be of general interest.