Winter Newsletter - 2015/2016

For the January program we will be changing our “Antique Technology” display; so if you have not seen it be sure to come by. Our next display will be featuring “winter” including winter paintings and photographs.

Monthly Meetings: On the third Saturday of the month at 2 pm, we will have scheduled programs. Here is the line-up for the first four months:

Jan 16: We will discuss the 13 historical pictures in our 2016 calendar.
Feb 20: Ron Patch will talk about our Lee pewter collection.
Mar 19: Scott Andrew Bartley, professional genealogist, will discuss his current research project, Early Vermont Settlers to 1784 and also how you go about researching your early ancestors.
Apr 16: Author Aimee Fogg will discuss WW2 soldiers buried in foreign American cemeteries
such as Henri- Chapelle, in Belgium, as well as other foreign WW2 cemetery sites.

2016 Calendars: They are available at Bibens’ Home Center, Images, Young’s Furniture, the Co-op, the Around the Corner Barber, the VAULT, Cota & Cota and the at Society. The cost is $10. This calendar has some great historical pictures of Springfield and is the subject of our first program on Jan. 16th. It is a nice gift for Springfield folks who have moved out of town. Also for sale, we have The History of Springfield Vermont by Richard Keith Barney ($15). This is a 726 page book documenting Springfield’s history through the Springfield Reporter. It is very interesting reading, Images of America: Springfield by Rosanne “Bunni” Putnam ($21.99), a pictorial history of Springfield, 128 pages, 215 photographs (also available at the library), The Blue Sox Book by Hugh Putnam ($20), the history of Springfield’s “semi-pro” baseball team between 1925 and 1944, and Toonerville Trail bookends ($10 a pair), these are actual pieces of the old trolley tracks from Charlestown to Springfield. These and many other items are available for purchase.

We want to acknowledge and thank our high school Interns who, under the leadership of Emily Stringham and John Swanson, did a very nice job decorating a tree for this year’s Springfield Garden Club “Festival of Trees” using old fashioned style decorations and old photographs.

We are always pleased to receive new items to add to our Springfield history collection. However, we received two donations of particular interest. Two inlayed wooden boxes were part of a recent donation from Caye Nemkovich Ellison of Ludlow. They are of particular interest because imprinted on the front is “Slack’s Champion Plant Vigor, manufactured by Slack Fertilizer Company, Springfield, Vt.” The Slack Fertilizer Company was actually located in North Springfield, but moved to Gloucester, Massachusetts in 1885; that would make these boxes in the neighborhood of 150 years old.But beyond that, it is very possible that the boxes were made by the Martin Box Factory, also located in North Springfield at that time. The Box Factory was known for making decorative and jewelry boxes. The factory burned in 1883, it was rebuilt and burned again in 1893. This donation brings to light a completely new piece of Springfield history.

Our second acquisition is a donation of seven books by Scott Andrew Bartley for our research library. These books include Vermont Families in 1791, Vols. 1 and 2; State Papers of Vermont, Vol. VII; Vermont Newspaper Abstracts; Walpole [NH], As it was and as it is – 1749 to 1879 (2);Vermont Place Names; Windsor Country Vermont Probate Index 1778 – 1899; and the Transcription of the State Copy of the 1850 Federal Census for Springfield VT; plus an exceptionally nice copy of Hubbard & Dartts’ 1895 The History of Springfield Vermont.

In other exciting news, we recently heard from the Springfield Town Office that we have gathered enough signatures on our petition to be placed on the spring 2016 Annual Town Meeting Ballet. We would like to ask the Town of Springfield for $9,500 to assist in the preserving, maintaining, and displaying for the public, the history and art of the Springfield, Vermont. This money will form the base for our $18,000 per year rent at our new location.