A project of the Craftsbury (VT) Historical Society: we invite people in town who may have an artifact of any sort to come to the Society and be recorded as they describe what it is, and how they came to own it.

Lynn Strong Calderwood Church - 2

A project of the Craftsbury Historical Society, we invite members of the community who may have artifacts at home that are related in some way to Craftsbury's history to describe what they are, and where the artifact was obtained.

Joe Houston - 1

This is an ongoing project of the Craftsbury (VT) Historical Society.  We have invited members of the community who may have an artifact that is historicall related in some way to Craftsbury, to come and describe what it is, and how they came about owning it.

Johnstone Family

Ross Morgan - 1

Larry Ryan had an antique wooden wheel from a mill in Craftsbury village.  He offered it to the HIstorical Society...and we accepted.  He tells the story about how he came to own it.

CHS LarryRyan Mll Wheel

Bernie Lussier recounts his family's history as it relates to coming to Craftsbury.

BernieLussier.WAV

Here's Ned Houston, long an important part of Sterling College's efforts to become a viable institution, describing how he and his family came to Craftsbury, and what their experience was once they got here.

NedHouston.WAV

Nancy has, for a good number of years, been a faithful docent for the Craftsbury Historical Society, waiting for visitors during our open hours on Wednesdays and Saturdays.  She lives nearby, and allows the CHS to keep Miss Jean's chariot in her garage, readily available for use on Old Home Day occasions.

Nancy Frohwein.WAV

Charles owns what he believes is a 19th century walking stick, passed down to him from his great grandfather.  He describes the piece in this interview.

CharlesLevineCane.WAV

July 14, 2023 Craftsbury resident Tom Silva sat down with Don Houghton to do a 'Craftstory' interview. 'Craftstories' is an initiative of the Craftsbury, Vt, Historical Society, documenting and preserving the stories of residents of Craftsbury and their families, as they relate to the experience of living in our town.

Tom Silva 7:14:23.MP3

August 4, 2023, at the Craftsbury Town Hall. Andrea Brightenbach,  a life-long oboist who continues to play professionally,  taught music at Craftsbury Academy for many years. She sat down with Historical Society President Don Houghton for this interview.

Andrea Brightenbach.MP3

August 12, 2023, at the Craftsbury Old Home Day celebration. Henry Marckres was born in Craftsbury, and for 33 years worked as Vermont's Maple Specialist, a job which, surprisingly, wasn't without its hazards: tasting tainted syrup samples landed him in the hospital three times. He sat for an interview with Craftsbury Historical President Don Houghton. He also recounted a personal story involving Craftsbury Academy and a Confederate 1000 dollar bill.

Henry Marckres 8:12:23.MP3

Andy Moffatt is a life-long resident of Craftsbury, born in 1939. There's been some interest recently that the Hitchcock film 'The Trouble With Harry', filmed on the Common in 1954, is coming up on the 70th anniversary of the filming. Andy was 16 back then, and watched the film being made. Here he talks to Historical Society President Don Houghton about what he remembers. September 6, 2023.

Andy Moffatt 9 - 6-23.MP3

9-9-23
Bob Davis grew up in Albany in a family that has deep roots in both that town and Craftsbury. His father Malcolm had bought the funeral business on the Common from Henry Clapp, and Bob eventually took over from his dad. He was an enthusiastic basketball player at Craftsbury Academy, and he passed that love of sports on to his children and grandchildren.  He loves the outdoors, and spent many years logging with horses in the area.

Bob Davis 9 - 9-23.MP3

Pete Reil was born and raised in Craftsbury, a 1965 graduate of Craftsbury Academy. He came to my attention when he came to the CHS Museum to offer a medical artifact from Dr. Bibby, a village physician who had given it to his mother, Viola Reil. The photo shows him holding it, in front of a portrait of his mother with the doctor. An avid hunter and fisherman, Pete describes how he grew up on the family farm that the Black River passed through, outside the village on the Creek Road.

Peter Reil 9 - 30 - 23.MP3

Rachel Farrar - Née Kinne - has lived on Old Lang Syne Rd., on the east side of Craftsbury Common, for a good part of her adult life. She met her husband Bill just after he got out of the Navy, after WW II. They both taught at Craftsbury Academy. While raising the couple's two adopted children, Rachel ran the family poultry business. As she approaches the century mark, she's famously know in town for her welcoming and friendly demeanor. Andy Moffatt once again joined me in listening to the interview.

Rachel Farrar 10 - 27 - 23.MP3

Eunice Kinsey lives on the E. Craftsbury Road in the house that she moved into with her new husband, Bob, in 1949. She's an active 96-year-old whose activities include a (voracious) reading habit, kayaking, gardening, and watercolor painting. She speaks in the interview of growing up near where she still lives; her remembrances are of a life in Craftsbury when you knew best - worked with, attended church with,  and married - the people in your immediate neighborhood, and were only remotely familiar with those who lived beyond.

Eunice Kinsey 11-6-23

Bethany (Merrick) Dunbar was raised in Craftsbury, and is the niece of Green Mountain Farm author Elliott Merrick. That book is of significant local interest since Elliott and his wife Kate came to live in their rustic farmhouse on Little Hosmer Pond in the 1930s; the book is a fictionalized account of the couple's interactions with people and events during those years on their farm. Bethany remembers her uncle, and recognizes him as an early mentor to her writing career. She reads a brief passage from the book that illustrates its appeal to the reader.

Bethany Dunbar 11-15-23

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

Ethan Hubbard began his career as a photographer/folklorist in the early '70s when he came to live in Craftsbury. The CHS is fortunate to have cassette copies of interviews Ethan did with a number of his neighbors, including this one, with Linwood Dill (1907-1993) in 1974. Linwood owned and operated a lumber mill located by the bridge just beyond the Cemetery Rd. turnoff as one is headed south out of the village. This is part 1 of the interview (i.e. the first side of the cassette tape before it was turned over.) Photo of Ethan by Tom Slayton.

Linwood Dill Part 1.MP3

Part 2 of the Ethan Hubbard interview of Linwood Dill.

Linwood Dill Part 2.MP3

(The recording starts slowly for 30 seconds, while whoever is doing the recording gets the settings right.)

In June of 1974, Ethan Hubbard recorded Miss Jean Simpson giving the graduation address at Craftsbury Academy. In her talk she encourages graduates to not neglect the 'time-tested' literature and poetry of the older days, for the wisdom and advice they impart. She also hoped that they might take part in the future dramatic presentations of the East Hill Players, the theater company that she founded in 1923, and continued being involved with for more than five decades. While the address was recorded in 1974, the photograph is from 1977 when she received an award from then-Principal Ted Howard.

Miss Jean Graduation '74.MP3

Marvin Ryan is the eldest of the three Ryan brothers - along with Willy and Paul - who were dairy farmers in Craftsbury throughout their adult lives. Marvin is retired now, and he speaks of his grandfather being a dairy farmer in Mill Village, of his father dying early at age 52, and of Marvin taking over the dairy operation with his two brothers in a number of locations around Craftsbury, before winding up at the intersection of Route 14 and Guy Lot Road. His remembrances here include schooling, and the different aspects of earning a living as a dairy farmer.

Marvin Ryan.MP3

Rudy is a self-described 'Army brat'; born in Germany where his First Sergeant dad was posted, he attended 16 different schools before finally graduating from Craftsbury Academy in 1973. Rudy brings community-minded energy to town affairs, taking advantage of the management skills he developed in his professional life to take an active role on both the Planning Commission and the Broadband Committee. He's also an accomplished amateur musician; his hometown band Meltdown drew enthusiastic crowds at a number of local venues.

Rudy Chase 3 - 22 - 24.MP3

Craftsbury's reputation as a world-class X-country ski destination is due in large part to the efforts of local resident John Brodhead. He and his wife Gina Campoli came to the Craftsbury Outdoor Center at the invitation of then-owner Russel Spring in the '70s; through John's efforts, the COC has become known not only for nordic skiing, but also for sculling, running, and mountain biking, among other sports.
John is retired now, and dealing with oncoming Parkinson's Disease. He talks briefly during the interview about how the disease is affecting his life-long athletic endeavors.
In 2019 John was inducted into the Vermont Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame. Here's a link to the video made at that occasion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A51VdHwMy4E

John Brodhead 3 - 30 - 24.MP3

Rich Karat is from Seattle, and he had been in touch with me during the winter about a personal project that required him to cross the country in order to visit sites where the filming of The Trouble With Harry took place seventy years ago, on and around the Common, as well as elsewhere in Craftsbury. He arrived today; we met at the library - only a short distance from where a good number of the principal scenes were filmed -  and we sat down to talk about what drives his interest in this particular Hitchcock film. This is our conversation.

Rich Karat 4 - 7-24.MP3

Lance - a name that he finds these days preferable to his given name Herbert - was born in Dorchester, near Boston, in 1929. He served in the Coast Guard in WWII, worked at a number of different careers over the course of his life, and came to live in an historic, 1850 house in 'downtown' Craftsbury that was originally the carriage house for the Inn next door. He came to Craftsbury with his wife in 2004. He is - deservedly - newly notorious in town, owing to a recent multi-paged spread about him in our local newspaper.

Herb 'Lance' Harris 5 - 2-24.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)

McDonnell 9:37.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.

MoffattVillageFire.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.

Popular tracks by CHS Craftstories