Saving history, one building at a time

May 4, 2013Posted inDanville Green, Historical sites

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.

It’s time for a Thaddeus Stevens postal stamp!

April 25, 2013Posted inHistorical people, News from Choate-Sias house

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.

Arlene Hubbard–Danville’s oldest woman

April 25, 2013Posted inHistorical people, North Danville
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.

Thaddeus Stevens in the Limelight–Congressional Career

April 4, 2013Posted inHistorical events, Historical people, Historical sites, NSM articles

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.

Thaddeus Stevens in the Limelight–Public Life in Pennsylvania

April 4, 2013Posted inHistorical events, Historical people, Historical sites, NSM articles

By Paul Chouinard

A portrait of a much younger Thaddeus when he was becoming well known in Pennsylvania.
A por­trait of a much younger Thad­deus when he was becom­ing well known in Pennsylvania.

Thad­deus Stevens’ friend­ship with Samuel Mer­rill, who shared his expe­ri­ence of being from Peacham, attend­ing Cale­do­nia Coun­ty Acad­e­my and grad­u­at­ing from Dart­mouth Col­lege, led him to move from Peacham to York, Penn­syl­va­nia, in Feb­ru­ary of 1815. Mer­rill, who was pre­cep­tor at Dr. Perkins’ Acad­e­my in York, rec­om­mend­ed his friend for employ­ment, and Thad­deus spent a year teach­ing while con­tin­u­ing his study of law at the office of David Cos­sett. His salary as a teacher was about $100 for the year.

By the begin­ning of the sum­mer of 1816, Thad­deus felt he was pre­pared to take the bar exam. The mem­bers of the York Coun­ty Bar Asso­ci­a­tion had adopt­ed a rule that no one could be admit­ted to the bar who had not devot­ed at least one year exclu­sive­ly to the study of law. For that rea­son, Thad­deus made a deci­sion to take the exam in Bel Air, Mary­land, the shire town of Hart­ford Coun­ty. Toward the end of August, 1816, Thad­deus made his way to Bel Air to take the exam. The exam­in­ing com­mit­tee con­sist­ed of Chief Jus­tice Hop­per Nichol­son, Theoder­ic Bland, Zebu­lon Hollingsworh and Gen­er­al William H. Winder of the Sixth Judi­cial Dis­trict. They met in the din­ing room of a local inn. The Judge informed Stevens that before ques­tion­ing could com­mence, “there must be two bot­tles of Madeira on the table, and the appli­cant must order it in.” Stevens com­plied, the wine was poured, and the ques­tion­ing began. What law books had he read? He replied that he had read Black­stone, Coke upon Lit­tle­ton, a work on plead­ing, and Gilbert on evi­dence. Three more ques­tions were asked.

Thaddeus Stevens in the Limelight–The School Years

April 3, 2013Posted inHistorical events, Historical people, Historical sites, NSM articles

By Paul Chouinard

An artist's rendition of the old school. The site of the building is marked in Peacham at the top of the hill near the cemetery.
An artist’s ren­di­tion of the old school. The site of the build­ing is marked in Peacham at the top of the hill near the cemetery.

Com­mon schools were orga­nized in Danville in 1790 with the cre­ation of five school dis­tricts, which includ­ed Danville Cen­ter. They attend­ed school in Danville before mov­ing to Peacham. Around the year of 1807, Sarah moved her fam­i­ly to Peacham, so her boys could have the ben­e­fit of attend­ing Cale­do­nia Coun­ty Acad­e­my, lat­er known as Cale­do­nia Coun­ty Gram­mar School and most recent­ly, Peacham Academy.

Sally Morrill moved her family to Peacham and stayed at what is now known as the Graham place. It is located below the village and the walk up the hill, especially in winter, would have been arduous for Thaddeus and his older brother.
Sal­ly Mor­rill moved her fam­i­ly to Peacham and stayed at what is now known as the Gra­ham place. It is locat­ed below the vil­lage and the walk up the hill, espe­cial­ly in win­ter, would have been ardu­ous for Thad­deus and his old­er broth­er. PHOTO BY PAUL CHOUINARD

Accord­ing to Ernest Bog­a­rt, author of Peacham’s his­to­ry The Sto­ry of a Ver­mont Hill Town, the pri­ma­ry require­ment for admis­sion was: “No per­son shall be admit­ted to study read­ing, spelling or gram­mar or any high­er branch who shall not already have acquired as much knowl­edge of the Eng­lish lan­guage as to read in any com­mon Eng­lish book as cor­rect­ly as to be able to study Eng­lish gram­mar to advan­tage.” Thad­deus’ moth­er had pre­pared him well to meet this chal­lenge by the time he was admit­ted at age 15.

The Acad­e­my was open to all stu­dents from Cale­do­nia Coun­ty. A month­ly tuition fee of 12 1/2 cents per month was charged in 1808. The Stevens fam­i­ly lived in what was known as the Gra­ham place, now owned by Ray­mond Welch, about one and one-half miles from Peacham Cor­ner. For the priv­i­lege of liv­ing there with her fam­i­ly, it is believed that Sal­ly pro­vid­ed house­keep­ing ser­vices for the own­ers of the home. In 1808 Sarah received the sup­port of her father, Abn­er, when he returned from Stanstead, Que­bec to live with her fam­i­ly fol­low­ing the death of her moth­er. Thad­deus walked to school, which giv­en his phys­i­cal dis­abil­i­ty, was no small accom­plish­ment. The dis­tance to the Acad­e­my was about one and one-half miles uphill. The walk was long and ardu­ous in the win­ter since the roads were rolled rather than plowed. Dur­ing a thaw one would sink into the deeply packed snow.

Thaddeus Stevens in the Limelight–Early Life in Danville

April 3, 2013Posted inDanville Green, Historical events, Historical people, Historical sites, NSM articles, South Danville

By Paul Chouinard

Tommy Lee Jones as Thaddeus Stevens in Spielberg's Lincoln
Tom­my Lee Jones as Thad­deus Stevens in Spiel­berg’s Lincoln

thaddeus 1Thad­deus Stevens has recent­ly been fea­tured in Steven Spielberg’s, Lin­coln, released nation­wide on Novem­ber 16, 2012, and was nom­i­nat­ed for twelve Oscar nom­i­na­tions. In Spielberg’s film, based on Amer­i­can his­to­ri­an Doris Kearns Goodwin’s, Team of Rivals: The Polit­i­cal Genius of Abra­ham Lin­coln, Thad­deus Stevens is por­trayed by Tom­my Lee Jones. It is the first time since his death in 1868 that he has been por­trayed in an objec­tive, his­tor­i­cal­ly accu­rate manner.

For years Stevens’ rep­u­ta­tion has suf­fered as a result of his por­tray­al of the thin­ly dis­guised char­ac­ter, Austin Stone­man, a fanat­i­cal vil­lain in D.W. Griffith’s land­mark silent film Birth of a Nation. Dur­ing the 1940s, Stevens was por­trayed as a vil­lain in Ten­nessee John­son, a bio­graph­i­cal film about Pres­i­dent Andrew John­son. As the antag­o­nist in both films, Stevens is por­trayed as an unrea­son­able, hos­tile, adver­sar­i­al indi­vid­ual who would let noth­ing stand in his way to meet his goal of pun­ish­ing the South and insur­ing the rights of the freed­men through his vision of Reconstruction.

Spielberg’s Lin­coln focus­es on divi­sions with­in Lincoln’s cab­i­net and the acri­mo­nious debate with­in Con­gress, dur­ing the last year of the war, over the pas­sage of the 13th Amend­ment to the Con­sti­tu­tion free­ing the slaves. The fear that the legal­i­ty of the Eman­ci­pa­tion Procla­ma­tion might be chal­lenged by the south­ern states, once they were read­mit­ted to the Union, made the pas­sage of the 13th Amend­ment essen­tial. While the Eman­ci­pa­tion Procla­ma­tion had freed the slaves, the 13th Amend­ment made slav­ery ille­gal forever.