Shown above, left to right: Mike Cain (FHS President), Lucien Hebert (Former Resident), Al Daniels, Judy Alderman (Former Resident), Mike Marshall (Former Resident), Colleen Steen, Elaine Kirkpatrick, Marvin Alderman (Former Resident) and Henry Raymond spent an enjoyable afternoon in the Community Library communicating with each other and learning about the History of Fairfax.
Nat Worman, St. Albans Messenger Correspondent sat through the meeting and plans to write something up on what we talked about. I don't envy him one bit as subjects ranged from Elaine Kirkpatrick's visit with Wayne & Sally Sweet to Andersonville where 244 Vermont soldiers are buried, to where different early residents lived in Fairfax, the History of The New Hampton Institute, The Goodall Farm, The Orton Farms, The demise of the new New Hampton Institute, the little rooms with little closets in the boarding houses, the Ice Cream Parlors in town, stores of the past and much more.
Lucien Hebert, son of Fred Hebert who actually tore down the old NHI told numerous stories including some of drawing coal for the BFA from the East Georgia station, living on what is now River Berry Farm and also on Georgia Mountain.
Mike Marshall, one of 15 children born to Allen & Florence (Gould) Marshall who was born at home on Huntville Road in a house formerly next door to the Hubbert house took me out on a tour before the meeting. He showed me where the old house actually was before it burned when Ira Bevins lived there. It was in very close proximity to the Hubbert House. He told me that he came to town a while back and some surveyors were surveying the lot. When he told them that was where he was born, the surveyor asked him how close to the Hubbert House his birthplace was and how far from the fence. After he told the surveyor approximately where he thought the boundaries were, he learned he was practically right on.
We drove up Fireman's Pond Road and he showed me where the Goodall House stood behind the Medical Center, then we drove down to the end of the street and he showed me where the barn was, which is where the former Jim & Donna Varrichione house now stands. When we drove up the Huntville Road, he pointed over to where there were some ledges and told me about a gentleman here in town who had an addiction to vanilla and had imbibed on just a few more bottles than he should have and fell over the ledges and broke his back and died. As we drove down the road and into a hollow, below Hillcrest Poultry, he pointed to the left and said that used to be the Goodall pasture and there were a lot of trees and brush there. He said they had seen the vanilla addicted individual come out of the woods there, so went in there to see what was there. He said they found an enormous pile of empty vanilla bottles back there. As we drove down the Boissoneault Road, he told me that farm there (Rene Boissoneault's) was the George Rooney Farm. He was surprised when I told him that George Rooney was my wife's grandfather, and even though George Rooney owned the farm at one time, he never actually lived there.
Another former resident who attended the meeting and is an absolute wealth of information is Marvin Alderman, a true genealogist in his own right. His ancestors of course go way back, his grandfather being Fay Marvin who was living where Swanson's Nursery is now during the flood of 1927. Marvin told about his grandparents during the flood and how they didn't want to leave and how in the end the buildings were destroyed and his grandfather never went back to farming. Vermont Food Ventures in the center of Fairfax is the former Alderman Ancestor Store.
It was brought up also that the former Ben Young Farm in the village was once owned by Stuart Orton's brother. After today, I certainly am going to have to try and get Lucien Hebert, Mike Marshall and Marvin Alderman to take a drive around town and get some of this History recorded. Not sure if I got all the facts right above, but Nat Worman recorded our meeting today and most likely will be able to cover more than I did. I don't envy him at all, being a stranger to town and all this garbled information to sort out.
As most of you must have gathered by now, I am very partial to The St. Albans Messenger, because their reporters & photographers and staff down at the office have been very good to me. They allow me to share their articles with you as well as many photos. Nat wrote a great article on Esther Kearney and I asked him if I could put it on my web site and he has not problem with it. He is also sharing a couple of photos with me, which I truly appreciate. I will try to get them e-mailed from the Messenger tomorrow and get the article up tomorrow if possible.
Hopefully you can make some sense of what I have written, but ohhhhhh, so much information for this old mind to absorb, especially when it was so interesting, I didn't take any notes.
Elaine Kirkpatrick provided us with some delicious homemade oatmeal cookies and chocolate frosted cup cakes to top off the meeting -- Thanks Elaine
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