Life in Elmore
June
29, 1898- Lucian Alexander, a Portuguese living in the
center of town, had the misfortune to lose his house and barn by fire last
Sunday night. Cause unknown.
July
6, 1898- The origin of the fire which consumed the
buildings owned by Lucian Alexander still remains a mystery. It was clearly the work of an incendiary by
but by whom and for what reasons are questions unresolved.
January
17, 1904- Peter Allaire farm known as the John Mead
farm burned. Mrs. Foss walked barefoot ¼
mile for help. 18 stock, 2 horses
(Allaires property) a team of work horses belonging to B.I. Griffith and valued
at $800 were lost. Family
staying at his parents, Mr. and Mrs. A. Allaire.
1872-
From
the Methodist church history- Oliver Bacon supervised the moving of the church
across the lake. (Willard K. Sanders
states he has a picture of Mr. Bacon as well as his compass. It is also stated that Oliver Bacon was a
surveyor and boat builder) According to Mrs. Jennings, daughter of Oliver
Bacon, her father moved an old camp from the west side of the pond to the
village across the ice one winter. She
asked him where he got the idea of moving it on the ice and he replied that was
the way they moved the old church. Mr.
Bacon is described as “a man, tall and straight; a typical Vermonter, who could
turn his hand at most any handy task. His
were the first camps on the Pond, complete with a large boat house and a steam
launch; his were the best kept farm buildings, and the sweetest maple
sugar. He had the opportunity to be a
leading citizen in the community and he did it well, if modestly.
May
15, 1898- “Commodore” Bacon who has charge of one of
the squadrons plying on Lake Elmore says the navigation season of 1898
commenced 5-14-98
June
15, 1898- Commodore Bacon thinks it is rather checky
for visitors to stable their horses in his park and then steal away without
paying for the use of boats.
January
25, 1905- C.W. Ward cut a pine on the Bacon property
that measured 2,933 board feet. The tree
from the stump was 130 feet high. Mr.
Oliver D. Bacon died on October 5, 1926.
He was the vice president of the Elmore Creamery.
September
6, 1899- Mrs. C.V. Bailey was struck down helpless and
speechless by the effects of lightning during the storm Sunday. Her speech has returned but she does not
regain her strength. She is perfectly
helpless.
July
28, 1897- Mrs. Henry Bangs was quite seriously injured
few days ago. Those mules being left to
themselves for a few moments took it into their heads to do a little running
and started down the road with the mowing machine to which they were
hitched. Mrs. Bangs, who was coming up
the road, saw them coming and ran up the bank to one
side. The tongue of the machine
breaking, the mules turned out on the same side and the machine struck Mrs.
Bangs going over one foot and ankle cutting and bruising it severely. Although no bones were broken it will be some
time before she can walk.
Daniel
Barnes and Katherine Harwood of Hardwood Flats-
Daniel and Catherine Barnes lost five children- Daniel, age 19; Catherine Mary,
age 26; Philander, age 23; Mary, age 2; and Horace, age 32. All were buried in East Elmore Cemetery.
Daniel Barnes, now living in Elmore was born in April,
1775, and consequently in his 96th year. He came to town as a young man, and married a
lady by the name of Katherine Harwood on July 5, 1810 who came into this part
of the country as a servant girl of the family of David Clemens., who settled
at the time in Hyde Park. They were married
in 1810 and she is still living with her husband in her 90th
year. They are supposed to be the oldest
persons in the county.
June
30, 1897- The Selectmen have purchased a site for the
town hall from A.A. Bliss.
June
25, 1891- The long talked of steamer has arrived. Its name has been the “Caspian” and has
formerly cruised Lake Caspian. It is a
steam yacht 30 feet long, 8 feet beam with a 10 horse boiler and six horse engine. It was taken
to Lake Elmore Tuesday and will be at once. (e painted
and put in trim for use by the public.
L.B. (Bing) Boynton, proprietor of the steam yacht is working on the
boat. A pier of 80 feet long has also
been commenced. The boat was
successfully launched on July 1, 1891 and the whistle can be heard for miles.
February
13, 1878- There was a trial of horse strength in East
Elmore between a horse owned by Alvin Cameron and one by Will Silloway Jr.
resulting in the favor of Silloway’s horse.
March
3, 1899- During
the blizzard last Wednesday night E.E. Camp, who was drawing logs across the
pond has a narrow escape from drowning.
Having left the woods late he reached the pond around 7:00 p.m. and got
away from the road and drove into a hole where someone had been cutting
ice. Cries for help were heard in the
village. One horse drowned and Elmer
took a bath in the ice cold water of the pond as did H.A. Wheelock when trying
to get the horses out.
Lyman
L. Camp- Lyman
L. Camp was another stalwart of the church.
He lived in the house with the “peaked roof” and was one of the many
from Elmore who enlisted in the Union Army at the time of the Civil War, being
in Company E. 3rd Vermont Regiment.
He fought at Gettysburg.
Afterwards he would visit the school just before Memorial Day and tell
the students of his experiences, particularly the Battle of Gettysburg. Oneit being dark
and he being exhausted, he opened his knapsack, took out two pieces of hard
tack, pounded them up and fried them, relishing them as he ate them. The next morning, he discovered he had
pounded up his hard tack with a cake of soap.
August
8, 1967- Mrs.
Gila Carpenter presides as the attendant at the concession stand at Elmore
Beach. Except for one year when she
worked in the picnic area Mrs. C. has been in charge of the concession stand
since 1949. (She served the Barre Daily
Times as Elmore correspondent for near 20 years.) Her husband William Carpenter, now 77, was
for years the picnic area caretaker. He
retired in 1964. Mrs. Carpenter taught
at the Pleasant Valley School from 1928 to 1932 and in East Elmore 1910, 1911,
1926, (15-25 students) 1927 and 1928 when the school closed. She was a former town representative.
April
20, 1898- Ice disappeared from Lake Elmore on April 17th
and Child and Waite logs are coming nicely to the lower end of the pond in good
shape.
September
22, 1897- All of Elmore’s great men have been
exercising their muscles for the past week practicing for the tug of war with
H.D. Cook as the captain.
July
3, 1907- An interesting suit was tried last Monday
before Justice B.F. Morse and a picked jury.
The case was that of the State v. Edward Crowell charged with keeping a
vicious dog. Ed,
at one time owned a dog; said dog some time last year got into bad company and
with another canine bit a little cal on the nose. Ed bought the calf and gave the dog to his
daughter, who lives in Wolcott, where a license was taken out. Now the dog likes Elmore better than Wolcott
and so was at his old home more than his new.
The Selectmen didn’t like this and so complained to the State. The jury returned a verdict of not guilty. The dog will, however, have to pay his tax in
Wolcott and reside there.
October
22, 1878- George Dike and Fletcher Wheat cut in one
day with a cross saw 170 hemlock logs.
February
28, 1906- Logging is getting to be a thing of the past
in Elmore. The record has been
broken. Herb Shepard did it last
Saturday with Charles Dodge’s team and it was the second time Charles’ old
horses had been on traverse sleds this season.
The measured 3,108 feet was a beauty to look at. Charles says that this is the last pull for
the team and in the future they will be known as “has beens”. Charles’ occupation is listed as
teamster.
November
10, 1897- Charles Dugar is hauling lumber and getting
ready to rebuild his set of buildings recently destroyed by fire.
November
24, 1897- He has commenced work on his new house and
barn.
December
22, 1897- Charles Dugar has his new hose far enough
along to move into it in a day or two.
Also on this day; William Fary one day last week missed his pig and after quite a
search found him at H.W. Wheelock’s in
the pen with his pig, which place he had reached by crawling in the window.
March
2, 1898- A card of thanks from Mr. and Mrs. Dugar to
all in the vicinity who showed their kindness and true friendship by assisting
them in their sad misfortune of being burned out of house and home right at the
start of winter, losing their barn and hay with some stock. Neighbors helped them to rebuild.
October
9, 1873- William Gay, age 15, and two others rolled a
lot of rocks and logs into the road that goes over the mountain. After telling people and after being
threatened with body writs, deemed it a good policy to go and undo their own
mischief.
August
6, 1891- Mrs. Fred Griswold picked 1 ¼ bushels of
raspberries. One family in town picked
130 quarts of raspberries.
June
14, 1899- The butter box factory of Martin Spaulding
was destroyed by fire, along with a barn and an unoccupied blacksmith shop, and
all buildings belonging to Mrs. Laura J. Griswold, and partially covered by
insurance. Mr. Spaulding’s loss is total
as nothing was saved and he carried no insurance.
July
2, 1899- Sedgwick Griswold had perfect attendance at
the pond school for 1899.
October
8, 1885-W.B.Harris has put a coal stove in his store
and thinks it is cheaper and more comfortable.
Mr. Harris is covering the front of his hose with corrugated iron.
May
28, 1891-The steam saw mill of R.G. Hill with its
entire machinery and about $5,000 worth of lumber was destroyed by fire last
Wednesday. The fire caught upon or near
the roof and the escaped notice of the night watchman who at its discovery by
the hands at the boarding house at 2:30 .m. was in the engine room. The flames
made such progress as to be beyond control.
It was not insured. It was the
best mill in this section and giving employment to a large number of men and
teams.
July
15, 1908-C.E. Haskell has about a dozen men working at
the mill now and expects to begin active operations in the manufacture of chair
stock soon. He has a contract for the
production which insures a ready market at all times ad everything points to
continued industrial activity in this section.
Mr. Haskell is making extensive repairs at the boarding house an store and will soon have both ready for business.