Rutland County VT Archives News.....Locals. February 4, 1870 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/vt/vtfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Jan Jordan jnrose@webtv.net February 26, 2006, 9:39 am Rutland Herald February 4, 1870 Rutland Herald, February 1870: Fri Feb 4 "Mr. Lyman P. Goss, formerly of Rutland, has recently been appointed the Superintendent of the Eagle Slate Co. at Hydeville. Mr. Goss is a quarryman of ability and experience . . ." RR accident on Vermont Central RR, Burlington â€" man killed "Destitute. The Albia (NY) woolen mills ceased running in October, and the operatives have been reduced to extreme misery for want of employment and food. Eight or ten families have become so destitute as to be obliged to keep to their beds for warmth, having no fuel." Sat Feb 5 Fair Haven â€" Masonic festival â€" "The hall was appropriately decorated with Masonic emblems, including the 'celebrated goat' and 'gridiron'. There was a goodly number present from Whitehall and other neighboring lodges." â€" A lot of Masonic activity reported in the Herald Tues Feb 8 "Accident at West Rutland. About 10 o'clock yesterday forenoon an unanticipated discharge of a blast occurred in Sheldon and Slason's newly covered marble quarry in West Rutland; by which a boy named Michael Tigue sustained severe internal injuries, one of his legs being also so badly injured that it is feared amputation will be necessary, if indeed his other injuries do not prove fatal previously. It seems that on Saturday several holes were drilled in which one of the walls of the quarry, which were filled with powder, and all were supposed to have been exploded, one, however, going off by the rock between it and another blast being torn completely out and most of the fuse, powder, and tamping being blown out by the rock . . ." (more on the details of the accident) Wallingford. Henry Hall lecture: "Indian Footprints, Part II: Indians that Formerly Inhabited Vermont." Notices of Henry Hall lectures frequent and laudatory. Wed Feb 9 "Michael Tigue . . . boy injured at Sheldon and Slason's quarry at West Rutland . . . suffered amputation of his leg yesterday . . ." "Grand Temperance Rally. The anniversary exercises of the Ladies Temperance Association of Rutland will be held Friday . . ." Thurs Feb 10 "Castleton. . . . A respectable assembly of some twenty couple of colored people came off at the Bomoseen House a few evenings since, commemorative of the emancipation proclamation of President Lincoln. Most of the male portion of the party were knights of the razor and sheers, therefore it was styled the 'barber's ball.' Their conduct was in all respects orderly. They hailed from St. Albans, Burlington, Rutland, Poultney, Salem, Whitehall, Fair Haven, and other places." [Note: 1870 census from ancestry.com lists 96 "colored" persons in all of Rutland County, distributed as follows: Benson (6), Castleton (10), Clarendon (4), Danby (2), Fair Haven (10), Hubbardton (1), Mount Holly (4), Pawlet (11), Pittsford (1), Poultney (4), Rutland (44), and Wallingford (1). Two "colored" barbers in Rutland were James L. Taylor, 62, and his son Edward Taylor, 23. ] "The arrivals at the Bomoseen last week numbered 235." Fri Feb 11 Home for Destitute Children in Burlington â€" local fundraising effort for Sat Feb 12 "Trotting at Hydeville. A trot for a purse of $75, $50 to the first and $25 to the second best horse, took place on the ice on Lake Bomoseen at Hydeville, yesterday, which attracted quite a crowd of spectators . . ." [ continuation on Wed Feb 16: ]   An estimated 4,000 people attended the trot on Lake Bomoseen from "Rutland, Poultney, Wells, Granville, Whitehall, Fair Haven, Hydeville, and Castleton, and other towns." "Accidental Death.   Mrs. Bryant, a lone widow of Waterbury, was recently found by her neighbors dead at the foot of her cellar stairs, having evidently been killed by falling down." Feb 11-12 Frank Lidell, Fort Edward, killed in a well-digging accident. Buried alive. Two separate stories, pretty detailed. Mon Feb 14 "Ladies Aid Society for the Relief of the Poor of Rutland will meet at the house of Mr. H. H. Paine on Grove St." Tues Feb 15 Brandon: "town rowdies" slash and cut the harness and reins of Capt. Cook's horse during a minstrel show Brandon: smallpox scare â€" one death "Sneak Thief. A man aged about 35 or 40 years, well dressed and of good appearance, has been hanging around about town for several days past, with no visible business, except the nefarious one which he practices. He watches his opportunity about a residence until he finds the male portion of the family absent, when he sneaks into the front or back door, as the case may be, and helps himself to what loose clothing or other valuables he may find. If caught in the act, as he sometimes is, he makes an excuse that he is hungry and asks for some cold victuals. . . ." Henry Hall lecture in Rutland Village Hall, solicited by many of the city's most prominent men, was very well received: "Ethan Allen's memory we always loved and revered, but never so much as since hearing Mr. Hall's lecture. . . ." Wed Feb 16 "Brattleboro. . . . John Demsey, a workman on the new bridge across the Connecticut River at Brattleboro, was on Friday knocked from the bridge by a swinging timber, and fell 25 feet to the ice below, striking on his head and shoulder. He was taken up senseless and supposed to be dead, but it is thought that he may recover." "Killed. A Frenchman named Louis Gangon was mistakenly killed on Saturday while at work on an embankment on the Woodstock Railroad near Tuftsville, by being crushed under a mass of frozen earth, which suddenly cracked off and fell upon him." Suspected robbery and murder in the burning of the store of Birchard of Dummerston. Thurs Feb 17 "The Rum Stream" â€" lengthy anti-liquor poem by the Rev. A. F. Bailey. Brief excerpts from a much longer poem: ". . . and the old River of Rum with poison now flows / the vilest and wickedest compound of woes . . ." Etc. Fri Feb 18 Brattleboro: Continuation of story of starvation:   "Hygienic Starvation at Brattleboro" â€" very long and detailed article on "alleged starvation of Flora Stoddard at Brattleboro, by her half-sister, Mrs. George C. Haskins, is one of the most extraordinary that ever darkened the criminal annals of Vermont. . . ." The gist of it is that Flora Stoddard was intentionally starved to death under a 'hygienic' diet of watered-down foods. Weird. Sat Feb 19 "Concerning the various cases of sneak thieving, robbery, &c, that are recorded, we may safely say that the symptoms of an epidemic of knavery are alarming . . ." ". . . . wood thieves are the latest nuisance. Sufferers better powder some of their chunks." Mon Feb 21 Women's Suffrage Convention at Rutland Opera House, Feb. 21-22. Speakers include William Lloyd Garrison and Julia Ward Howe. Several very long articles on the convention in subsequent days. A very big deal. "Ladies Aid Society for the Relief of the Poor of Rutland will be held at the house of Mrs. Geo. R. Weed on Main St." Wed Feb 23 500 people at Rutland Opera House for the Women's Suffrage Convention. Sat Feb 26 Annual Report of the Town of Rutland Selectmen. "From the report of the Overseer of the Poor, it appears that the amount drawn by him. . . . [was] $4,517.00. All of this has been expended in the care of the poor under his charge. Eleven persons have been buried at town expense during the year." The report includes reports by the following committees: "Report of Town Liquor Agent, Mr. B. W. Marshall . . . Report of the Overseer of the Poor . . . Town Treasurer's Report . . . Auditor's Report." Sat Feb 26 "Wm. N. Bacheledor of the Bomoseen House, Castleton . . ." END. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/vt/rutland/newspapers/locals31gnw.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/vtfiles/ File size: 8.0 Kb