HARDWICK – In June of 1888, the editor of the St. Johnsbury Caledonian wrote and published an article about the emerging granite industry in Hardwick which claimed that “granite has been mined in Hardwick as long ago as when the old stage coach used to run from Warner’s tavern on[Read More…]
Weeks Gone By
Women’s Work
In both 1900 and 1910, the few women who owned or managed businesses in the Village of Hardwick did so from their homes as dressmakers or milliners. Many homemakers took in boarders, making themselves boarding house managers, but rarely told the census taker that they had an occupation. By the[Read More…]
Then Again: The State of Vermont vs. Earl Woodward, Part III
Part One is here. RANDOLPH – An alleged kidnapper faced the legal system and the court of public opinion. The public assumed the worst when Earl Woodward and Lucille Chatterton disappeared one evening in April 1925 from the Granville farm where they both lived. It seemed obvious that the 27-year-old farmhand had[Read More…]
An Up-and-Coming Place
HARDWICK – The October 12, 1899, issue of the Hardwick Gazette, announced that J. W. Hersey’s new two-story store on South Main Street – measuring 40’ x 50’ – was in the final phase of completion. In April, Hersey had begun to advertise clothes, groceries and feed, perhaps selling out[Read More…]
Then Again: Search for Missing Eleven-year-old Continues, Part II
Part One is here. VERMONT – Eleven-year-old Lucille Chatterton has disappeared from her Granville home on April 24, along with hired hand Earl Woodard. A state-wide search was launched for the pair, with Woodward assumed to be the abductor. On Wednesday, the Rutland Herald reported the scene around Granville: “All[Read More…]
Vermont Girl’s Disappearance Sparked Massive Search, Part I
VERMONT – The last time anyone had seen Lucille Chatterton was at 6 o’clock on April 24, 1925. That’s when the 11-year-old girl told her father she was going to fetch some water from the spring, which was 50 yards from the family’s home in Granville. Her father, Walter, wasn’t[Read More…]
Bancroft was One of Plainfield’s Early Settlers
by Carla Occaso, The Bridge PLAINFIELD – Baxter Bancroft resided in Plainfield longer than any other, 84 years (by 1882), per an entry in Volume IV of the Vermont Historical Gazetteer edited by Abby Hemenway in 1882. This section is titled “The History of Plainfield, Roxbury, and Fayston.” Bancroft had[Read More…]
Growing Up Black in Hardwick
HARDWICK – My name is Orin LeRoy Bracey Jr. This article describes the youth of an octogenarian African American man, who had the uncommon good fortune to have grown up in rural Vermont in the late 1940s. It will become obvious upon reading this seven-year snapshot of my recollections of[Read More…]
Growing Up Black in Hardwick
HARDWICK – My name is Orin LeRoy Bracey Jr. This article describes the youth of an octogenarian African American man, who had the uncommon good fortune to have grown up in rural Vermont in the late 1940s. It will become obvious upon reading this seven-year snapshot of my recollections of[Read More…]
U.S. Postal Service Instrumental in Name Changes
HARDWICK – In 1781, the Republic of Vermont granted a charter for a town named Hardwick to a group of 67 people known as proprietors. Most of them had some connection to Hardwick Massachusetts. The name Hardwick first appeared in a newspaper when, on January 22, 1787, Bennington’s Vermont Gazette[Read More…]
Two St. J. & L.C. R.R. Trains Collide
HARDWICK – One of the most serious and fatal accidents in the history of the St. Johnsbury and Lake Champlain Railroad occurred at 4:45 p.m. on Friday, May 5, 1944. About a mile west of the Greensboro Bend station and six miles east of the Hardwick station a west-bound train[Read More…]
