History

I noticed the item in Today in History…in 1892, new boiler installed at the Brooks House.  It’s possible, but I’m not sure, that the boiler is located under the former Frankie’s Pizza.  It may briefly see light of day in the very near future when that building is razed.  I don’t know whether the plan is to bury or remove it.  Speaking of Frankie’s, it looks like his son is opening a restaurant/bar in the old HR Block location next to the former Lawton’s.

In 1881, Brattleboro taxes, bonds, and debts were an issue. Read on for a letter to the editor on the subject by Levi Fuller, a noted member of the Estey Organ Company and governor of Vermont.…

Taxation in Brattleboro

“What shall the tax of Brattleboro be this year?” is a question asked by many. The completion of the grand list furnishes the necessary information. An examination of the town auditor’s report (page 21) shows the expenses, outside of the reduction of debt or extraordinary repairs upon highways, to be estimated at $8,773, and for this sum the auditors report sufficient resources already provided.

You will enjoy this. The Phoenix of May 16, 1890 featured a story about a meeting held to discuss what is needed in Brattleboro. The following list was published as a record of the event. It isn’t often we get such a clear statement of desires from those who came before us.

Read on to see what they wanted. Some things came to pass, others faded away, and some are things we still talk about wanting today.

In May of 1885, Brattleboro formed a village improvement society. They called it the Rural Improvement Association, and many of the big names in town joined the executive committee. Dr Draper of the Retreat was chosen as president, and vice presidents included Gov. Holbrook, Jacob Estey, George Brooks, Edward Crosby and others.

(To P. Baxter, Derby Line, Vt. M.C. 1^stVt. District)

Philadelphia, May 15, 1864.

Honored friend:

I have received yours of the 12^th inst. That money came most opportunely as I hardly knew how I was to get through here. I am sometimes fearful that I cannot pass here. If I do I shall be very sure of the other examination. They do not mean to pass a man here that will be rejected by the board. If I cannot pass here, I think I can withdraw from the school. If I do I am determined to keep on with the study until I am qualified to command, whether I ever have that pleasure or not, the time is too short for me. There must be a great many soldiers here that cannot pass. There was hope of getting extensions to their furloughs, but that is gone. There are some that have come merely to pass away the time. There are others, noble fellows, that are working with all their might, but they must fail. One cannot learn the first two volumes in Casey, Geography, Arithmetic, Modern and Ancient History in thirty days.

Philadelphia, May 15, 1864.

Dearest Abiah,

Here I am yet. This is Sunday. Henry Ward Beecher teaches near here, but notwithstanding my anxiety to
hear him I have not done it. There has a large number of wounded arrived in the city this morning. I went to the Baltimore depot to see them, but the crowd was so great that I could not get near. I saw in the ambulances as they passed, some I knew but they were all recruits, and knew but little about the old boys. I had quite a chat with one man, a recruit, who has left Brattleboro since I came from there, wounded very severely in the ankle. I walked by the side of the ambulance. He told me that a great many Vermont boys were with along, but he had not been in the army long enough to know the men.

Here is a .

In Brattleboro, in the year 1909.  there were a rash of robberies, and no suspects. . . .

Philadelphia, May 9, 1864.

Dearest wife,- 

You see I am here yet. I wrote to you on leaving Brattleboro April 25^th and again on reaching this place, but have heard nothing in answer to them. I have received one letter from you directed to Brattleboro and forwarded to me here. I thought that I would write to you again from here now, for if you have not received my letters and have heard that our boys at Brattleboro have been ordered to the front, they stopped in this place the night of May 3^rd. I did not know of it until they had gone on. All my luggage is in Brattleboro, except that clothes I took with me here.

To add to our continuing look at town government and annual town meetings, let’s head back to see the news of May 8, 1903. From the Phoenix:

Village Meeting as Exciting as a Quaker Meeting – Tax of 40 Cents Voted With About 30 Present

Thirty men transacted the business of the annual village meeting Tuesday, with the exception of the election of the officers, making provision in three minutes for the expenditure of about $20,000, which is at the rate of over $6,500 a minute. Stated another way, each man voted away over $650, provided all voted.

This was a

(Just a printed form)

FREE MILITARY SCHOOL

FOR Applicants for COMMAND of COLORED TROOPS,-

1210 Chestnut St.

John H. Taggart, Preceptor, (late Col. 12th P.R.V.C.)

Philadelphia, April 30, 1864.

We often curse low turnout at the polls. “How could it be that only 1,200 people came out to vote?” we ask, usually when the vote goes against us. Why can’t it be like the olden days, where everyone turned out to participate in civic affairs?

Here’s a story from May 5, 1893 Phoenix about the incredibly low turnout for the first town meeting to be held in the daytime. – there were more election officers in the room than citizens. Maybe our numbers aren’t so bad?

From the Vermont Phoenix, May 1, 1885, an article discussing matters that should be discussed at the upcoming annual village meeting.

Things For The Village Meeting To Take In Hand, 1885

A matter of the first importance, which should receive attention at the annual village meeting next Tuesday evening, is the sanitary condition of the village. With a cholera invasion threatened, and all the great cities of the country fearing an attack of the scourge, more importance will attach to sanitary matters in every community the coming season than ever before.

While Brattleboro as a rule is in clean, wholesome condition, and enjoys a remarkable degree of freedom from epidemic disease, there are plague spots in the village which are too obvious to need pointing out.

The Problem of Slavery in Vermont 1777-1810 is the subject of a talk to be presented on Tuesday, May 6, 7:00pm, at the new Brattleboro Historical Society History Center located in the Masonic Center building, 196 Main Street.

The speaker will be Harvey Amani Whitfield, an associate professor of history at the University of Vermont and author of a book by this title published recently by the Vermont Historical Society. The program is co-sponsored by Brattleboro Historical Society and Vermont Historical Society with support from the Alma Gibbs Donchian Foundation.

Vermonters have long been rightly proud that our state was the first to outlaw slavery in its Constitution of 1777.

Here’s an interesting story from April 22, 1881. It seems that the F.W. Childs company came through one day and put up telephone poles along High Street on behalf of the Bell Telephone Company. The “boys” doing the work did a lousy job of it, leaving a mess of unfinished (ie, natural growth, not sawed or turned) poles up the street.

This upset residents, but there was a new statute allowing for poles to be placed for private telegraph and telephone lines, and the Selectmen had given the company permission. Asked later, the Selectmen said they didn’t know what they were signing.

Brattleboro, April 20, 1864.

Dearest wife,-

I am well. You must have been alarmed by what I wrote. There has been nothing the matter with me except
some bad boils. I am glad that I wrote to you on Sunday, as you will see by that letter that I was well enough to be on duty. I have not yet been excused from it. I have just lighted my candle to read a letter from Catherine. I wrote her a long time since, but it appears that she did not get my letter. This is the first evening in my new quarters. It seems good to be alone. Wish that you could be here to spend the evening with me. “My heart is in the Highlands, my heart is not here” but the body is. The weather is chilly and gloomy enough. Have had no sun for several days. The making of sugar is over here, but I think it must be pretty good weather for it in the North part of the State. It is cool enough here, but the season is over. I miss the chance of going over to Hinsdale. I have written to Jacob today.

The First Social Security Beneficiary

The first person ever to receive a Social Security benefit check was Ida May Fuller from Brattleboro
Miss Fuller (known as Aunt Ida to her friends and family) was born on September 6, 1874 on a farm outside of Ludlow, Vermont. She attended school in Rutland, Vermont where one of her classmates was Calvin Coolidge. In 1905, after working as a school teacher, she became a legal secretary. One of the partners in the firm, John G. Sargent, would later become Attorney General in the Coolidge Administration.

From April 18, 1902, published in the Brattleboro Phoenix, a discussion of necessary repairs for the fire department:

“Your bailiffs report that during the last year they have thoroughly renovated the engine house on Elliot Street, repainting both its interior and exterior, putting on a new roof, putting in a bath room and improving the accommodations for the men permanently on duty there’ this house had not been painted for six years and the roof had not been renewed for ten, thus making there repairs absolutely necessary. The expense connected with this was about $1400. The repairs from the Estey Organ company’s steamer, which was damaged in the Crosby block fire, was another extra expense in connection with the fire department….

Guard House, April 17^th, 1864.

Dearest Abiah,-

The guard house is my place until tomorrow morning at 8 o’clock. That is the time we change guard now. I have been pretty bad off for some ten days with boils. I was a little better for one day, that was my turn on guard, so I have not missed any duty and have not been on the sick list. I did not want the doctor hold of my boils. I had the management of them myself. I hope that I have had the last one. I did go to the Doctor sometime since and told him I wanted him to tell me whether I had the itch or not. He said that he thought that it was. He says that most of the men in the first company had it. He gave me some sulphur ointment and advised me to get some yellow dock. I have not taken any yet.

Brattleboro, April 3^rd, 1864.

Dearest Abiah,

I believe I was in Washington, when I quit writing there I was within a few hundred yards of Jacob I suppose and could not go and see him. That came of being trustworthy. Had to take charge of the men, keep them from running round. I could have fixed them, for I could have taken them to the barracks and I should have laughed to have seen them get out before I or the Captain came, but that would not be doing as I would be done by. At 8 o’clock the Captain came and we took the cars for home. Got into New York the next morning about 8 o’clock and stopped until the next day at 11, and in that time we all had the chance to go where we pleased. I was glad to lie still. I was as tired as I ever was in my life feet so sore that I could hardly step.