Lincoln movie brings public awareness to Thaddeus Stevens’ important role

Posted on May 16, 2013 by sharon lakey

By Patty Conly, Pres­i­dent of the Danville His­tor­i­cal Society

For a video of the event, pro­duced by King­dom Access, click here.

screening at Fuller Hall, St. Johnsbury, VT, on May 4, 2013.

A full house at  Fuller Hall, St. Johns­bury, VT, on May 4, 2013, for the screen­ing on Lin­coln and dis­cus­sion on Thad­deus Stevens’ role in the film and Con­sti­tu­tional history.

Two students from the Thaddeus Stevens School introduced the evening's program with U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, host of the event.

Two stu­dents from the Thad­deus Stevens School intro­duced the evening’s pro­gram with U.S. Sen­a­tor Bernie Sanders, host of the event.

Despite a spec­tac­u­lar spring day in the North­east King­dom and a vast array of events in com­pe­ti­tion, a large crowd was on hand at St. Johns­bury Academy’s Fuller Hall Sat­ur­day evening May 4, for a screen­ing of the recent film Lin­coln.  This free pub­lic event was hosted by U.S. Sen­a­tor Bernie Sanders, who began the evening by intro­duc­ing three stu­dents from the Thad­deus Stevens School in Lyn­donville. The stu­dents spoke elo­quently, giv­ing a brief sum­mary of the life and times of Lin­coln, Thad­deus Stevens and the period dur­ing the Civil War.

Senator Sanders

Sen­a­tor Sanders

Sen­a­tor Sanders told the audi­ence how he became intrigued with the life and career of Thad­deus Stevens, par­tic­u­larly after his first view­ing of the movie. It became appar­ent to him that Stevens was a much more mon­u­men­tal fig­ure in the polit­i­cal issues of the period dur­ing the Civil War, of which he was pre­vi­ously unaware.  He found it amaz­ing that a con­stituent who was born, raised and edu­cated in two very small towns in the North­east King­dom of Ver­mont, as well as being from a poor fam­ily, could rise to become one of the most influ­en­tial and instru­men­tal con­gres­sional rep­re­sen­ta­tives for the abo­li­tion­ist move­ment. Stevens was pas­sion­ate about his cause and deeply ded­i­cated to ensur­ing the pas­sage of the 13th amend­ment to the U.S. Con­sti­tu­tion to abol­ish slav­ery. Con­tinue read­ing →

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May 1863–North Star takes a shot at its hometown boy

Posted on May 4, 2013 by sharon lakey

The Efforts of Union Gen­er­als in the East­ern The­atre Comes to Naught and the North Star Takes a Shot at Its Home­town Boy

By Gary Far­row, Danville His­tor­i­cal Society

May 9, 1863 North Star–Radicalism

Noth­ing is more com­mon now, when every­thing depends on a united North, than for the Rad­i­cals to ful­mi­nate their extreme abo­li­tion notions – ignor­ing both the Con­sti­tu­tion and the Union. Their lead­ers in Con­gress have boldly pro­claimed this sen­ti­ment. “Who,” shouted the Abo­li­tion­ist Bing­ham, Ohio mem­ber of Con­gress, at the last ses­sion, “in the name of God wants the Cot­ton States, or any other State this side of perdi­tion, to remain in the Union, if slav­ery is to con­tinue.” Thad­deus Stevens has uttered, if pos­si­ble, still more extreme sen­ti­ments. It tells the whole story. They do not want and do not mean to have the Old Union. It is a direct assault upon the loy­alty of the Bor­der States, which have fur­nished thou­sands of troops for the Fed­eral army – of States which have ever claimed the right to reg­u­late their own inter­nal negro pol­icy. But the Rad­i­cals make no dis­tinc­tion between those slave states which remain true to the Old Flag, and those which have fought against it so long. Were the seceded states to lay down their arms to-day, and pro­pose a full return to loy­alty and the Union, these men would say “No” to their sub­mis­sion. And what is more, this class of rad­i­cals has always wanted, in some way or some­how, to drive off the slave states.

*** Con­tinue read­ing →

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Saving history, one building at a time

Posted on May 4, 2013 by sharon lakey

Masonic Hall Ren­o­va­tion Goes For­ward on Danville Green

By Sharon Lakey

The Masonic Hall graces the Green in Danville.

The Masonic Hall graces the Green in Danville.

It takes a com­mit­ment to keep a town’s his­tory alive, and Danville’s Masons of Wash­burn Lodge #92 appear to be in it for the long haul. The big, brick build­ing on the Green has been their home since 1894, but it has been a grace­ful pres­ence there since 1831.

At first glance, the build­ing looks like a church, so it makes sense when one learns that the Calvin­ist Bap­tists, who formed in 1792, built it for their con­gre­ga­tion at a cost of $3,100. One of the found­ing mem­bers in the Calvin­ist Bap­tist Church in Danville was Charles Sias, the first cap­tain of the first mil­i­tary com­pany in town. In our Society’s his­tor­i­cal records, a note reads that in the church a “revival took place from 1833 to 1836” but also relates “the church dis­ap­pears from the min­utes of the Danville Asso­ci­a­tion in 1852.” The build­ing stood empty until the Wash­burn Lodge pur­chased it as their new home in 1894.

The Masons, of course, have their own inter­est­ing his­tory that dove­tails with the build­ing. Just before the Bap­tists built their church on the Green, Danville became the hotbed of the Anti-Masonic move­ment, and the old North Star led the charge. Danville’s William Palmer, the first and only gov­er­nor in the nation to run on the Anti-Masonic ticket, was elected Gov­er­nor of Ver­mont in 1831, the same year the church was built. Con­tinue read­ing →

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Monday Painters Art Exhibit up through May

Posted on April 25, 2013 by sharon lakey
Jan Houston, who along with Barbara Matsinger founded the Monday Painters, was the honored artist at the event.

Jan Hous­ton, who along with Bar­bara Matsinger founded the Mon­day Painters, was the hon­ored artist at the event.

A great event! Our April 21 after­noon artists’ recep­tion was a lot of fun. Now that it is warm­ing up, when you are out and about, come see the show; it will be in place through May. To see a photo album of the event click here.

 

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It’s time for a Thaddeus Stevens postal stamp!

Posted on April 25, 2013 by sharon lakey

Stamps–Telling great tales in the small­est of spaces

By Sharon Lakey

Don Gallagher, A Stamp for Stevens volunteer

Don Gal­lagher, A Stamp for Stevens volunteer

Don Gal­lagher is a man on a mis­sion; he thinks it is the right time to get Thad­deus Stevens on a first class for­ever stamp. But he needs a lot of help to fur­ther the cause. He came by the Choate-Sias one day last week and shared his enthu­si­asm for the project. “Now, since the movie Lin­coln has been released, a lot more peo­ple are inter­ested in Thad­deus and the role he played in the pas­sage of the civil rights amend­ments,” said Don. Con­tinue read­ing →

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Arlene Hubbard–Danville’s oldest woman

Posted on April 25, 2013 by sharon lakey
Arlene Hubbard is Danville's reigning oldest woman at 101 years old.

Arlene Hub­bard is Danville’s reign­ing old­est woman at 101 years old.

By Dale Lynaugh

Arlene was born in Kirby, VT on Sep­tem­ber 20, 1911 to Carl and Maude Ailes. She lived there until she was three years old and then she and her fam­ily moved to St. Johns­bury. Arlene lived in St. Johns­bury for five years, attend­ing Grades 1 and 2 at the Port­land Street School. In 1920, her fam­ily moved to North Danville. Arlene con­tin­ued with her edu­ca­tion in a three room school house in North Danville. She fin­ished grade school, Grade 3 through Grade 8, at the same school, as well as her Fresh­man and Sopho­more years of high school before going to Phillips Acad­emy in Danville where she fin­ished her Junior and Senior year and grad­u­ated in 1929. Con­tinue read­ing →

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Lincoln showing at Fuller Hall (Free and open to the public)

Posted on April 23, 2013 by sharon lakey

 

RSVP to hold your seat. This will be an extraordinary event.

RSVP to hold your seat. This will be an extra­or­di­nary event.

 

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Monday Painters Artist Reception–April 21 from 2 to 4 pm

Posted on April 18, 2013 by sharon lakey
Anne's Setup, watercolor on paper, 14 x 10 Watercolorist, Jan Houston

Anne’s Setup, water­color on paper, 14 x 10
Water­col­orist, Jan Houston

As a spe­cial trib­ute to water­col­orist, Jan Hous­ton, an artists’ recep­tion will be held on Sun­day, April 21, from 2:00–4:00 at the Danville His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety, located at 121 Hill Street in Danville. Exhibit­ing with her will be Bar­bara Grey, Robin Roth­man, Sheri Pearl, Joan Har­lowe, Donna Mar­shall, Jenny Green and Bar­bara Matsinger .

The group started with two artists, neigh­bors Bar­bara Matsinger and Jan Hous­ton, get­ting together on Mon­day morn­ings to chat and paint. Soon it became some­thing more–a whole group of artists gath­er­ing and chat­ting and paint­ing on a Mon­day morn­ing, twice a month for 13 years!

Each artist will exhibit three paint­ings of their choice. Come meet them and enjoy their work over light refresh­ments. The exhibit will be in place through the month of May.

 

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Granite post to honor Thaddeus Stevens as part of the Green project

Posted on April 5, 2013 by sharon lakey
Andy Wasserman discusses her post concept at the Danville Historical Society

Andy Wasser­man dis­cusses her post con­cept at the Danville His­tor­i­cal Society

Andy Wasser­man, the lead artist on the Danville Green project, was impressed by the movie Lin­coln and the part Thad­deus Stevens played in the pas­sage of the 13th Amend­ment that made slav­ery con­sti­tu­tion­ally ille­gal in the United State. She decided to ded­i­cate one of the gran­ite posts of the Green project to him and met with Soci­ety rep­re­sen­ta­tives to dis­cuss it.

“I didn’t want to use images that have been overused,” explained Andy, “such as bro­ken chains and clasp­ing hands.” Instead, after much thought, she grav­i­tated to a sym­bolic tree and after dis­cus­sion has set­tled on a sin­gle root­stock emerg­ing from the stone, then branch­ing out into two stems, one black and one white, with their upper limbs becom­ing inte­grated. All present were pleased with the idea.

Andy tells us that the artists will wait for VTrans to com­plete their part of the project before begin­ning the final artis­tic phase. She feels that will prob­a­bly be in mid-July. Some of the artis­tic fea­tures are already com­pleted and are wait­ing for installment.

 

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Thaddeus Stevens in the Limelight–Congressional Career

Posted on April 4, 2013 by sharon lakey

By Paul Chouinard

The historical marker located on Danville Green in Danville Vermont.

The his­tor­i­cal marker located on Danville Green in Danville Vermont.

Elected as a Whig to Con­gress in 1848, Stevens served the tra­di­tional two terms. While in Con­gress he deliv­ered sev­eral major speeches against the Com­pro­mise of 1850, protest­ing the Fugi­tive Slave Law and the exten­sion of slav­ery into the ter­ri­to­ries. Dur­ing his first term Stevens gave an emo­tion­ally charged speech, “The Slave Ques­tion,” in which he chal­lenged his col­leagues: “You and I, and the six­teen mil­lions are free, while we fas­ten iron chains, and rivet man­a­cles on four mil­lions of our fel­low men; tear their wives and chil­dren from them; sep­a­rate them; sell them and doom them to per­pet­ual, eter­nal bondage. Are we not then despots – despots such as his­tory will brand and God abhors?”

Upon the pas­sage of the Fugi­tive Salve Law of 1850, Stevens defended run­away slaves. In the cel­e­brated 1851 Chris­tiana trial, Stevens served as one of two defense lawyers for thirty-eight blacks accused of mur­der­ing a slave­holder. All defen­dants were acquit­ted. Con­tinue read­ing →

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