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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Putney Federated Church/United Church of Putney

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In 1919 a ‘union of good faith and economy’ created the Putney Federated Church, now the United Church of Putney, bringing the Methodists (established in Putney in 1832) and the Baptists (dating to 1787) together with and in the Congregational Church, which had been established in Putney in 1772. The groups maintained denominational ties and kept separate membership lists, but formed a Women’s Association, joining women from the different denominations.

The church building dates from 1841, on land sold to the Congregational Church Corp. by John Black, owner of the Putney Tavern, on March 10, 1841, with an additional 1/8 acre purchased from Stearns A. Houghton on March 24 (PLRv.8p.496; v.9p.194).

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Overview of Religious Organizations in Putney

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Religion and Spirituality In Putney, Vermont
By Stuart Strothman, 2002, with funding from the Vermont Humanities Council
On Sunday mornings, Saturdays, and holy days, people of Putney and the surrounding communities have attended meetings for worship, and for spiritual growth.  With motor vehicles in common use, many people attend services outside Putney, at St. Michael’s Episcopal, St. Michael’s Catholic, All Souls Unitarian Universalist, the Brattleboro Area Jewish Community, the Windham Community Chapel in Dummerston, the Westminster West or Dummerston Congregational Churches, the Guilford Community United Church of Christ, or elsewhere. In this section of our website, we have descriptions from all the Putney churches, based on interviews of experienced members.

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January 25 08

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Putney Historical Society Minutes

January 19, 2008

Present: Stuart Strothman, Barbara Taylor, Jane Rawley, Lyssa Papazian, Lindley Speers, Tim Ragle.

Meeting began at 9:30 a.m.

Secretary’s Report

President Stuart Strothman presented the minutes of the November 14th PHS meeting.

Lyssa moved to accept the minutes. Motion was seconded and passed unanimously.

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