Prayer Group, 1875, Postcard to Lower Waterford

This little postcard (5 by 3 inches) was mailed from Lyndon to Lower Waterford in April 1875, ten years after the end of the Civil War.

Although Dave and I worked on the research together, we could not find material on John Moore living in Lower Waterford at that time. If you have some information on him, please let me know.

Here's what the back of the card says:

Lyndon Vt - April 20th 1875

Friend Moore

I will meet you and my friends in that vicinity at West Littleton School House May 2nd at six o'clock to hold a prayer meeting I expect others to come with me + we will try and have a good meeting

Yours Respectfully

H. C. Wilson

Dave's notes include the following: Homer Carrol Wilson, 1863-1948. His first wife was Alice Sophronica Lincoln, 1863-1912. [I add that his parents were Squire J. Wilson 1831-1908 and Abigail "Abbie" Wilson 1830-1924.] Homer and Alice had a son Robert Homer Wilson, born in 1892. In 1921 Homer married Mary Hight Emerson.

Homer lived on Main Street in Lyndonville and worked for the railroad. Later, he had a shop for shoe repairing and horse goods, on Depot Street. He is found in the 1930 and 1935 Lyndon directories. In 1901 he was Secretary for the Speedwell Golf Links, where the president was T. N. Vail and the vice-president C. M. Darling.

Homer was also director for many years of the Lyndonville Military Band.

He died in 1948 at age 84.

An Upper Waterford Home and Family at "Trout Brook Farm"

Postcards sent and treasured can offer unexpected insight into families and their lives in the past 150 years. It was a delight yesterday to find this card, which must have been included inside an envelope, since it had no address or postmark. It is a Velox postcard, according to postcard expert Dave Kanell, who says the card was thus printed between 1907 and 1914. On the back in browned ink, in neat but not fussy script, it says "Compliments of / S/ F. Cutting / Trout Brook Farm / Waterford Vt."

S. F. Cutting was Stillman Franklin Cutting, a longtime resident of Upper Waterford. He was born in Concord, VT, on September 17, 1846, to parents Franklin H. Cutting and Prudence Isham Cutting. In 1910 he served as a member of the Vermont House of Representatives.

It's poignant to know this homestead vanished with the construction of the Connecticut River hydro dams. Mr. Cutting would have seen Comerford Dam built (1930-31), but he died in 1940, before the Moore Dam's reservoir would fill the scraped-bare landscape where his home once stood. His death was recorded in Gilman, Vermont, but he is buried at Riverside Cemetery in Waterford.

An extra pleasure in exploring Mr. Cutting's life in Waterford was discovering his Valentine's Day 1841 marriage to Martha Woodward Carpenter, daughter of Amos Bugbee Carpenter -- some of whose family letters, perhaps due to his role as West Waterford postmaster, have also survived the years. In fact, we have a note that Martha, nicknamed May, sent as a child to her brother in college at Dartmouth, which can be seen here.

A Call for Modern Photo Postcards

Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter are the social media that have replaced photo postcards today - but these rectangles of stiffened paper last much longer! Here is an image, printed in the 1950s, of the "Rabbit Hill Motor Inn" in Lower Waterford. The photo was captured by Jenks Studio of St. Johnsbury, Vermont.

By dint of its age, the postcard is now an "antique." What should we be printing to make sure that today's lovely moments are captured for viewers 50 years from now?

Power Plant and Business in Neighboring St Johnsbury, Vermont, Circa 1910

This winter, we'll work on more of the details of Waterford's water-powered mills, which ranged from traditional sawmills, to a tannery, and an oil mill (linseed!). And of course, Waterford's 20th and 21st centuries are strongly influenced by the three linked power dams on the Connecticut River (including Moore Dam, the one that most affected the town's history, and Comerford, with its amazing construction in 1928-1930, explored elsewhere on this blog; the third is McIndoes).

So it's a good time to look at this postcard of a power station that still exists, at the confluence of the Moose and Passumpsic Rivers in the next town west, St. Johnsbury. (Click on the images to see them enlarged.) My ever-researching husband Dave dates this postcard at about 1910; the "reverse" treats economic hard times pretty cheerfully! Local residents and dedicated visitors will recognize this mill site, where today's "Old Mill" fitness club and neighboring restaurant prosper. A fishing platform is being installed a short distance downstream, at Fred Mold Park. Changes! But good ones, we hope.

Three cheers for O. V. Hooker and Son, promoting their sturdy business through the power of the press and postcards, a century ago.

Summer Correspondence, Lower Waterford, Vermont, 105 Years Ago

Here's a lovely postcard mailed on June 8, 1909, from the writer in Lower Waterford to the addressee in Concord, Vermont. Maybe we should try to have these cards made up again! Meanwhile, if you know something about the people in this correspondence, please do add your comments. (Thank you, Dave Kanell, for sharing images of this card.)

Comerford Dam Construction Photo, Showing Railroad

At the May meeting of the Waterford History group, we made summer plans, including a hike along the old rail bed from East Barnet to Comerford Dam. This rail spur was used to get materials to the dam site, especially the massive lengths of iron needed before the concrete could rise around them. I believe workers sometime rode the train, too. You can see the rails in this photo postcard; notice the numbering, which probably indicates the photographer offered a series of related cards.

Comerford Dam, A Different VIew!

All the stories of Waterford, past and present, have within them the presence of the Connecticut River along one border of the town, and with that, the changes that the two major power dams along this stretch of the river brought to the town. "Upper Waterford" is under the water behind Moore Dam; Comerford Dam, the earlier of the pair, was built in 1930-1931 with the promise of Moore Dam to follow, but the later, larger dam didn't actually arrive until 1954. Thus, older Waterford residents have memories of Moore Dam's construction and the changes it brought. Younger folks focus on the swimming access to the lake, as well as boating and fishing there.

An angle rarely seen is shown by this postcard. It dates back to the days of "amateur radio" or "ham radio," when anyone who studied for and passed the test could have a radio station in their home. Users -- called "hams" -- who contacted each other over the air waves sometimes exchanged postcards marked with their radio call signs (special combinations of numbers and letters assigned when the station was first authorized) and a note about the on-air connection. This one, from the collection of Waterford resident Dave Kanell, shows Comerford Dam -- at the time, the only dam on the Fifteen Mile Falls of the Connecticut River.

Online research easily located Alex Tremblay, the local station operator and a nearby resident.