History

It was 103 years ago this week that the largest headline in the Brattleboro Daily Reformer asked, “What Is A School For?” In 1913, the Vermont Legislature created a Commission to examine the state of public education in the Green Mountains. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching evaluated the Vermont school system and gave recommendations intended to improve education. Today’s BAMS students read a summary of the ancient report and reacted. Here’s the story.

http://www.sheaff-ephemera.com/list/letterheads/prof-d-m-bristols-equescurr.html

http://www.circushistory.org/Olympians/OlympiansB2.htm gives us…

“BRISTOL, CLIFFORD. Son of D. M. Bristol. Agent, VanAmburgh’s, 1847.

BRISTOL, DE LOSS M. (d. May 11, 1926) Father of Clifford Bristol. Prof. Bristol’s Equescurriculum (horses and mules), 1885-91; Prescott’s Great Eastern, 1896. Died at home of his son, Exeter, age 78.”

It was 97 years ago this week that Brattleboro celebrated the return of her World War I soldiers, sailors and nurses with a parade up and down Main Street. An estimated 8,000 spectators watched 50 local organizations join together to honor the 470 men and women who served during the “War to end all Wars”. Here’s the story…

The Friends of Brooks Memorial Library invite the public to attend a free presentation by Tim Weed on Sunday, May 8 at 3:30 in the Library. The presentation is titled, “A Playground for Empire: Historical Perspectives on Cuba and the USA. Tim Weed has made many trips to Cuba, and will discuss past and current changes in Cuba and US relations.  

Weed is an award-winning author, outdoorsman, independent explorer and a founding director of the National Geographic Student Expeditions. This program is made possible through the Vermont Humanities Speakers Bureau.

It was 150 years ago this week that Brattleboro’s Overseer of the Poor signed an Indentured Service contract with a farmer in Dover for the services of a ten year old boy named Robert Drake. That’s right! In 1866, one year after the Civil War ended, and 4 months after the United States Congress abolished slavery, a ten year old boy from Brattleboro was made an indentured servant until he reached his 21st birthday. Here’s the story…

Here’s an advertisement for a useful item, made right here in Brattleboro. It’s Thorn’s Hop & Burdock Tonic, which is good for treating a range of ailments. Thorn made and sold his popular tonic for quite a few years in the late 1800’s with great success.

This ad appeared in the Vermont Phoenix in the spring of 1886.

Thought some history buffs and classic car buffs might enjoy these photos that recently appeared on the Hemmings Motor News blog.

http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2016/04/19/brattleboro-vermont-1965-2/

It was 103 years ago this week that the Vermont Phoenix reported that the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution was locating and marking the graves of Revolutionary War soldiers in Brattleboro and nearby towns. You may not be aware that Brattleboro is virtually surrounded by the history of the American Revolution.

Another advertisement from old Brattleboro. This time we’ll see what Chase & Tripp are offering at their place downtown, in April of 1857.

It looks like silver spoons are the newest rage. We’ll have to get a few.

Below you will find an advertisement from the Vermont Phoenix, April 1874, that informs of us the wonderful selection of lumber at the lumber yard.

“Lumber! Lumber! The undersigned is now replenishing his Lumber Yard with a fresh stock of Lumber for the spring trade consisting of shingles, lath, and finishing lumber of all descriptions,” it begins.

It was 86 years ago this week that the writer HP Lovecraft was home in Providence, Rhode Island creating his story, “The Whisperer in Darkness”. Lovecraft was a self-described writer of “weird tales” which often blended fantasy, horror and science fiction. “The Whisperer in Darkness” is one of those weird tales set in a fictionalized Vermont in an area much like our own Brattleboro.

In the spring of 1909, the completion of a new hydro-electric dam in Vernon created at 28 mile long lake, from Vermont’s southern boarder with Massachusetts to Bellows Falls, as waters began to back up and subsume much of the river-adjacent countryside. On average, the water level rose 30 feet and eventually flooded more than 150 farms. Among the lands subsumed by permanent flood waters were a series of petroglyphs sites near the confluence of the West River and Connecticut River dating from a precolonial epoch, in the lands now known as Brattleboro, Vermont.

Below you will find an advertisement from April 1875 for a Grand Gift Concert and Ball to be held at the Town Hall in Brattleboro on April 27. You’ll want to get a ticket to this, because the prizes are amazing.

There is a concert from 7 to 9 p.m., followed by a ball from 9 until 2 a.m. A special orchestra is coming in from Lowell, Mass.. for the event.

The $2 ticket gives you a chance to win big. How big? How about first prize, a house and lot on Canal Street?

Due to our tardiness in posting this podcast it should perhaps read, “Last Week in Brattleboro History.” Sorry about that.

It was 100 years ago this week that Brattleboro was in an uproar about the sale of alcohol in our town.

This week BHS trustee, Joe Rivers, and his intrepid band of young historians at the Brattleboro Area Middle School examine the prohibition era.

http://www.biblio.com/fred-emerson-brooks/author/20439

http://cicilycorbett.blogspot.com/2006/10/bad-poetry-fred-emerson-brooks.html

1843: To the disgrace of civilization and Christianity, the practice of selling Town Paupers, annually, to the lowest bidder, still prevails in many Towns of our own and the neighboring States. Those unfortunate beings, who have been reduced to poverty, and become unable to maintain themselves, are put up at auction, and the person who will take them at the cheapest rate, – or in other words the person who will work them the hardest, and keep them in the poorest manner, takes them for a year and makes the most he can.

Interesting…I’m sure they were referred to somewhat as indentured servants rather than slaves.  Some illegal aliens seem to be similarly employed in modern times.

Many thanks to Chris Grotke, whose served as vital source for this week’s podcast about the history and evolution of town meeting in Brattleboro.