The Waterford Historical group met at the Davies Memorial Library on July 25 and heard from four people who'd attended the former district ("one-room") schools as children -- a great evening, and there's a similar one planned for August 22, at 6 p.m. Many thanks to all. Count on video footage being available sometime next year, from these events (our editing process is slow but steady).
Meanwhile, it's also great that surrounding towns are sharing with us. Here's an invitation from the Peacham Historical Society -- which also raises the question: Who in Waterford went West during the Gold Rush? There is one stone at the Riverside Cemetery that says the person died in California -- anyone have a story to go with it?
Hope you'll want to post some local history here soon.
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Peacham Historical Association Plans Annual Meeting
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
The Peacham Historical Association will hold its annual meeting on Wednesday, August 1 starting at 7 p.m. at the Peacham Congregational Church. Following the Association’s business meeting, the evening program will begin at 7:30 and is entitled: “He Says, She Says: A Shared 19th Century Diary.” The featured speaker, well-known archivist Lynn A. Bonfield, will read from the shared journal that Alfred S. Rix and Chastina Walbridge Rix started in Peacham on their wedding day in July 1849. For almost five years they alternated entries, writing about the birth and raising of their son, Julian, Alfred’s teaching at the Peacham Academy and studying law, his law practice, and the decision to go to California. Their shared journal is unusual in describing the difficulties created by Alfred’s decision to go to California and Chastina’s struggle to make the trip to rejoin her husband in San Francisco. Lynn A. Bonfield edited the journal, which was published in 2011.
The program is open to the public and admission is FREE! The evening will end with dessert and conversation downstairs in the church.
Mark your calendars! We hope to see you on August 1.
I noticed recently Someone once asked here whether anyone from Lower Waterford went to California to find gold.. https://waterford-vt-history.blogspot.com/2012/07/an-invitation-from-peacham-vermont.html#comment-form
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely!!
Milo Jasper Goss whose letters are available in the archives of Bancroft Library of UC Berkeley and in the public library of Kalamazoo Michigan. He died in San Francisco in 1856. His brother Samuel Green Goss also traveled to California but separately. He returned to Wisconsin from California in 1852.
Then in 1851, George Goss , son of Locke Goss, joined the gold rush. His letters home used to be available here https://www.rootsweb.com/-vtcbarne/georgeGoss.html but are not there anymore. Maybe Ancestry took them over…
See also “HO for California Caledonia Gold Miners” in Vermont Historical Society 74 (Winter/Spring 2006).