This track is from a recording of a Craftsbury Historical Society meeting on 9/24/97, where the guest speaker was Everitt Demeritt, speaking on the topic of 'Early Mills in Craftsbury'. Everitt and family earned their living as sawmill operators, and in this conversation he shows his intimate familiarity with the topic. This conversation is from a cassette tape, digitized for the purpose of making it available here. It ends suddenly, when the tape ran out, and wasn't turned over to complete the recording.

Demeritt Early Mills 9-24-97.MP3

In this recording, Christine McDonnell is reading a newspaper account of Craftsbury's 1937 Community Fair, the precursor to what we know today as Old Home Day. It's a picture of a community totally involved in celebrating every aspect of its rural way of life: agriculture, home-based skills and products, sports, music...By coincidence, Arthur Rothstein, a FSA (Farm Security Administration) photographer, happened to be in the area, and he took about a dozen photographs of the day's happenings; they, along with the newspaper 's vivid description, combine to give us a full and interesting account of Craftsbury's 1937 celebration on the Common. (Here are Rothstein's photos:https://loc.gov/search/?in=&q=craftsbury&new=true)

Community Fair Sept. 1937.MP3

There have been three garage/service stations in Craftsbury village over the years. The accompanying photo is of the first one that burned in 1933; it was replaced by a second one that burned in 1960.  Joel Hodgdon is the owner of the third, and present, garage; here he reads the account of what happened when the first garage burned.

Joel Hodgdon Garage Fire.MP3

In 1931 there was a major fire in Craftsbury village that destroyed houses and barns located on the corner of Cemetery Road and Main Street, as well as the third floor of the building that we know now as the Craftsbury General Store. The Hardwick Gazette published an account of the event several days after it happened; here is that account, as read by Andy Moffatt.

Village Fire 1931.MP3

On Tuesday, May 20, 1913, George 'GG'  Chasse was working on an invention involving acetylene gas when an explosion occurred, with deadly consequence. The building he was working in was on the south side of the Common, adjacent to the funeral home. In this audio recording, Bruce Urie reads the newspaper account of what happened that day.

GG Chasse Explosion.MP3

On January 2, 1936, the general store and outbuildings that were located on the south side of Craftsbury Common - adjacent to the present-day funeral home - burned to the ground on a day when the temperature was 15-20 degrees below zero. This was another in what had been a series of fires in Craftsbury; the general store in the village had burned in 1931, and the service station followed in 1933.
     Bliss Farrar, Bill Farrar's dad, owned the store. Daniel Dyer, who  was the Academy's Principal and basketball coach, rented a 'tenement' in the building, and George Dunn, the town's mail carrier, kept his automobile in the building's garage. 
    This article is read by Jeremiah McCann, who is currently Craftsbury's Fire Chief.

Bliss Farrar Fire Jan 2, 1936 .MP3

2024 is the 70th anniversary of Alfred Hitchcock's filming of his 'comedy' The Trouble With Harry in our little village of Craftsbury 
Common, Vermont, in 1954. Over the years there have been a good number of newspaper articles written about the filming. Two articles from the Hardwick Gazette, one written by June Cook in 1985, and the other by Janet Reed in 1998, dealt with local involvement in the affair. Longtime summer residents Merrill Leffler and Ann Slayton spent some time editing the two articles into one reading, which they present here.

TWH Hdwck Gzt 8 - 30 - 24.MP3

September 8, 2024. Film historian Rick Winston, founder of the Lightening Ridge Film Society and operator of the Savoy Theater in Montpelier, is the author of "Save Me A Seat: A Life With Movies". He was invited to the Trouble With Harry Festival  in Craftsbury to deliver remarks concerning the making of that film on Craftsbury Common in 1954 by Alfred Hitchcock, and starring Shirley MacLaine, in her first movie role, and John Forsythe. The Festival was organized by both the Craftsbury Library and The Craftsbury Historical Society. Rick's visit was underwritten by Vermont Humanities in Montpelier. These are his remarks.

Rick Winston 9 - 8-24.MP3

Mary Morin's family came to Craftsbury from Quebec in the early 1920s. They bought the farm now owned by Jim Jones,  just north of the intersection of Cemetery Road and Rte. 14. Mary is Anne Hanson's great-aunt. Anne and I had a conversation with her about growing up in Craftsbury in the 20s and 30s - what she remembered about walking to and attending the village school; her love of reading, dancing and playing cribbage; of getting to ride in Miss Jean's chariot; her feelings about those rigorous Vermont winters, and more.

Demeritt Early Mills 9-24-97.MP3

CHS Craftstories

Related tracks