Wednesday, February 27, 2019

Lee Family Reunion (1903) and Dairy Herd Auction (1915)

My partner in research, my husband Dave, often finds Waterford-related items in past issues of our local paper, the Caledonian-Record (or Caledonian, or Evening Caledonian, as it was for while). He passed these two along regarding the Lee family that has resided near Stiles Pond since 1801. I'll show the 1915 item first, since it's short:


And here is the 1903 Lee family reunion report. Note in particular the presence of Bertha Lee, home from Ohio where she received her schooling; her eventual return to the farm would engage it again in dairying, as well as offering guest rooms. Also note mention of the nearby Asa Lee property on "East Village Road," which apparently became the Hovey farm that remains as The Farmer's Daughter today. "East Village "(East St. Johnsbury) residents may also be pleased to see Charlotte Morrill mentioned; her house still stands in the village. The geographic closeness of the Lee farm and East Village was mirrored in the social closeness of the two, and marriages linked them further. This is a great example of how Waterford's clusters of settlement often stayed closest in most ways to the nearest neighoring village or town, rather than to the (farther away) center of Waterford itself.