On her 80th birthday, a Danville Artist Shares her Story

October 6, 2016Posted inDanville Green, Historical people, North Danville, NSM articles

By Sharon Lakey

“I’ve been kind of a maverick. I feel as if I’ve washed along, fitting in here and there…”

Robin Rothman

 

Robin at home in her living room in Danville.
Robin at home in her liv­ing room in Danville.

Robin Roth­man has always been a bit of an enig­ma. She is a lone walk­er on the streets and roads around Danville; she is that small woman stand­ing among the few at the St. Johns­bury post office, hold­ing signs pro­mot­ing world peace; she is the woman who draws our atten­tion to the details in our sur­round­ings through the thread of a fine-line ink drawing.

North Danville Village Farm Receives Vermont Century Farm Award

North Danville Village Farm Receives Vermont Century Farm Award

January 9, 2014Posted inHistorical people, Historical sites, North Danville, NSM articles

By Pat­ty Con­ly, Direc­tor of the Danville His­tor­i­cal Society
Image Above: For-Clifs barn in the mid­dle of North Danville vil­lage. PHOTO COURTESY OF SUSAN (LANGMAID) LYNAUGH

There is a unique charm about the quaint and pic­turesque vil­lage of North Danville, nes­tled in the north­east­ern cor­ner of Ver­mont.   It has remained essen­tial­ly unchanged in many ways for the past cen­tu­ry.   Just ask any­one who lives there present­ly or has lived there at any time in the past.  Some of the faces and names have changed, but their mem­o­ries and lega­cy remain through friends and rel­a­tives still liv­ing in the com­mu­ni­ty. There is a strong sense of will­ing­ness to help one anoth­er that has endured gen­er­a­tions of fam­i­lies liv­ing in the vil­lage, as well as those liv­ing in hous­es or on farms on the out­skirts of town. North Danville was once bustling with mills and busi­ness­es cen­tered around its prime loca­tion on the Sleep­ers Riv­er, which runs par­al­lel to the low­er part of the vil­lage.  Today most of those busi­ness­es are no longer in exis­tence; how­ev­er, sev­er­al long-stand­ing fam­i­ly owned farms are still thriving.

The name Lang­maid has been asso­ci­at­ed with farm­ing in this area for many gen­er­a­tions, and their fam­i­ly farms con­tin­ue to dot the land­scape in and around Danville. But, there is a unique char­ac­ter about the Cliff Lang­maid farm, now known as the For-Clifs farm in the heart of North Danville.  It was renamed to reflect cur­rent own­er Cliff Lang­maid and his father and for­mer own­er, For­rest Lang­maid.  The unique­ness lies in the fact that it is a work­ing farm sit­u­at­ed right in the cen­ter of the vil­lage. You sim­ply can­not pass through the North Danville with­out notic­ing the big red barn.

Clif Langmaid, Lee (Langmaid) Beattie and Plynn Beattie
Clif Lang­maid, Lee (Lang­maid) Beat­tie and Plynn Beat­tie. PHOTO BY LIZ SARGENT

In the sum­mer months, as you approach from Danville and make the turn head­ing into the vil­lage, you will like­ly see the emer­ald green hill­side pas­ture dot­ted with black and white Hol­steins graz­ing in the field amid yel­low dan­de­lions. If you hap­pen to dri­ve through around milk­ing time, you may have to wait patient­ly as Plynn Beat­tie or Lee Lang­maid Beat­tie act as tem­po­rary “traf­fic con­trol cops” to stop cars and direct a parade of cows saun­ter­ing across the road mak­ing their way to the barn.  This is a less famil­iar sce­nario now in many small towns across Ver­mont and the North­east King­dom. How­ev­er, it is still a rare find in the epi­cen­ter of North Danville! 

Arnold Langmaid — July 5, 1919 — 93 and Counting

August 1, 2013Posted inHistorical people, North Danville, NSM articles

By Dwayne Langmaid

Arnold and Shirley Langmaid at the award ceremony for oldest man in Danville.
Arnold and Shirley Lang­maid at the award cer­e­mo­ny for old­est man in Danville.

First of my remem­ber­ing much of Arnie, and of course Shirl, they were liv­ing in half of the lit­tle house across from the old North Danville store. Rather tight quar­ters by today’s stan­dards, but cer­tain­ly a step-up from the tin-can tiny trail­er that had been home. Before that, I’m told Arnie went to the St. Johns­bury Trade School, worked at C. H. Goss, mar­ried Shirl in ’42, and then did three years with the Army in Europe until the end of the Big One.

After get­ting out, Arnie and Shirl bought the tin-can and lived in Spring­field where Arnie was a machin­ist in one of the big shops. A cou­ple years lat­er, we–Hom, Boo, Joe and Snug–started com­ing along. This prompt­ed the move to Arthur Sanborn’s lit­tle house. Arnie mechan­iced out back in the garage that still stands there and helped his dad, Burl, in the woods. Wrench­ing and log­ging didn’t seem to be mak­ing ends meet, so he went to work for Fair­banks Scales, rapid­ly going through the foundry–drilling to plan­ning to milling and lathe work.

In 1950, Arnie and Shirl bought the farm where Snug and Smit­ty (Don and Dianne) are now. The place was pret­ty rough. They, with the help of our grand­par­ents, aunts and uncles, hoed and dug, ripped and tore until in the sum­mer of ’51, we moved in. The old house was plen­ty big enough, but we didn’t dal­ly run­ning down to the cook stove on nip­py mornings.

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.