Month: July 2008

Ellie Lascore: Waitress, Putney Diner

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Interview and transcription by Paul Levasseur, April 2007

This is the best job in the world for anybody like me.

I had a very tough childhood, but as I grew older it got better, through my work. That’s what made me happy, I found out.

This is the best job in the world for anybody like me. You know, you can meet nice people, you have a good time, and you get paid for having a good time! I mean I just met so many wonderful people, and it’s never been a job for me. It’s been a good time, all the time. My kids can’t get over that, or anyone that knows me can’t get over that.

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Obsidian in Vermont: Analysis of an Arrowhead in the Gerald Coane Collection

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by Matthew T. Boulanger, Archaeometry Laboratory, University of Missouri Research Reactor and Thomas R. Jamison, Hartgen Archeological Associates, Inc., Putney, Vermont

Introduction

Archaeologists are particularly interested in identifying evidence of prehistoric long-distance trade and exchange, and artifacts made from stone are some of the best records of such exchange because they can be traced back to specific geological outcrops. Archaeologists often develop an intuitive knowledge about the types of stone and their potential sources that were used prehistorically. In Vermont for example, most archaeologists recognize quartzite from the Cheshire formation or chert from the Champlain Valley. But, when archaeologists encounter an artifact made from stone not found in their region of inquiry, they use the term “exotic” to describe it.

Occurrences of so-called exotic artifacts are not uncommon in Vermont.

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July 27 07

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Present: Ruth, Laurel, Tom, Jane, Stuart

Sept 23rd, Sunday at 2 for annual meeting—possibly at Community Center—need to call Rosemary Bryant 387-6002 to confirm.

Nominating committee—Ruth, Jane, Laurel. They’ll come up with the slate. New board member to be, Maryanne Toffolon. Need other new members.

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No Move to Pierce’s Hall

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In case you haven’t heard, the board of PHS determined that the historical society could not coexist with the monthly contra dances held at Pierce’s Hall.  The East Putney Community Club was very generous to offer to share the space of the Hall, especially considering the historical society’s recent difficulty in finding a place to … Read more

Putney Historical Society Community Supper

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On Friday, June 8th, 2007, members of the historical society hosted the monthly community supper at the United Church of Putney. Over two hundred people were fed, and a wonderful choral group from Hartford Connecticut came in to sing, prior to their later performance upstairs. On the menu was pasta primavera with a cream sauce … Read more

Accessioning of Subject Files Completed

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Thanks to the hard work of Stuart Strothman and Mary Jane MacGuire, the massive collection of “subject files” has been recorded and electronically listed.  This work took well over two hundred hours during the course of the last two years.  There are three subject file drawers in the cabinet; Lindley Speers and Fern Tavalin recorded … Read more

New Historical Society Office in Town Hall

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If you haven’t seen our new office yet, do make an appointment to come by the town hall to look at it, and to do any research you may be interested in. The office is small but comfortable; it is located in the former ladies’ room, on the right hand side of the large upstairs … Read more

November 14 07

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Present: Stuart Strothman, Tim Ragle, Lindley Speers, Jane Rawley, Lyssa Papazian, Laurel Ellis, and Tom Jamison.
Secretary’s Report
President Stuart Strothman presented the minutes of the PHS Annual Meeting, held September 23, 2007, at the Community Center.
Motion to accept the minutes was made, seconded, and accepted.

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Annual Meeting, September 23 07

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Location: Putney Community Center

Members present: President Ruth Barton, Vice President Laurel Ellis, Secretary Stuart Strothman, Barbara Taylor, Tom Jamison, Jane Rawley, Tim Ragle
Also present, many people including Craig Stead, co presenter with Tim Ragle of historic 1820’s house.

Meeting called to order by Ruth Barton at 2:00 p.m.

Secretary’s report was offered. Motion by Laurel Ellis to accept the September 24, 2006 minutes of the Putney Historical Society Annual Meeting was seconded and accepted.

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The Society of St. Edmund/Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church

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Catholicism in what is now Putney was first heralded among the Sokoki Abenaki (indigenous in this immediate area) and other Algonquin people by Jesuit French missionaries and trappers who lived and traveled on this land through much of the 1600s. Well before the French and native Americans raided Nehemiah Howe’s frontier settlement on the Great Meadow in the 1740s and the Putney Fort in the 1750s, operating out of Montreal and St. Francis/Odanak (Calloway, 1990), Catholicism was firmly established as a predominant religion and heirarchical means of settling disputes, “paving the way toward peace among the Wabanaki Confederacy and the Catholic Iroquois of Montreal” (Baker, 1976, p. 20).

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