Here is some interesting Weston history. A few years ago, Ted Spaulding and his brother John “Gramp” Leon donated to the Chester Historical Society countless items that had descended in the Spaulding and Marshall families.
From Gramp came 125 diaries. Gramp’s father Edward was born in Weston in 1892. The diaries were kept by William Ryland “W.R.” Spaulding, Gramp’s grandfather, and other family members. They are very useful today.
In October 1894, W.R. held an auction at the Weston homestead. Ted told me what he knew about the Weston days.
The auction
The photo with this article is the oversized auction poster for this sale. This poster offers us a glimpse of the property, and those days. It reads:
“GREAT SALE
Farm Property Stock, Hay
Farming Tools, Grain, Etc.
WESTON, VT. WEDNESDAY OCT. 17, 1894.
The Home Farm
Containing 70 acres, suitably divided into mowing and pasture, good wood lot with some spruce and hemlock timber, good apple orchard and a Sugar lot which will tap 350 trees. The buildings consist of a good two-story house, with ell, woodshed and a carriage house connecting. Running water at house and barn. Good Horse Barn, two good Cattle Barns with cellars underneath, and good Sugar House with wood shed…
Adjoining the above is another farm containing 80 acres suitably divided into mowing and pasture, good wood lot, with spruce, hemlock and cedar timber, small sugar lot of 150 trees, and the following buildings: One-story house with ell, wood shed and carriage house attached, two Barns. Running water at house and barn.
These farms have been carried on as one the past twelve years and make one good one or two small ones; are both in a good state of cultivation and within 1 1-4 miles of good Cheese Factory.
Also, 100 acres of pasture and heavy spruce timber land known as the Chatterton Lot, situated three miles northwest from said farm.”
It goes on to list all of the farm equipment and livestock. I checked W.R.’s diary for Oct. 17, 1894. His entry, “Auction today.”
Some years later, the farm was bought by the government, razed to the ground, and is now part of the national forest.
Ted told me W.R. moved the family up Twenty Mile Stream, where they stayed with the Slack family a year or so. Then W.R. moved to Springfield, where he lived for two years or more. W.R. built two houses on Summer Street, and one on Union Street. The house removed a few years ago at the bottom of Hospital Hill was the Union Street place.
By 1900, W.R. had leased the Henry Farm here in Chester. W.R. bought the Blasidell place and developed a livery and horse-drawn taxi service. This is the place across from Smittys.
W.R. died in 1928, and was buried in Weston. This is the cemetery as you drop down into Weston from Andover. In 1931, W.R. was exhumed from the Weston cemetery and buried in Pleasant View Cemetery on High Street in Chester.
“Why?” I asked Ted. There was a hot issue in Weston at the time. Some in Weston were pushing for a flood control dam. If the dam had been built, the Weston cemetery would have been flooded. This is why W.R. was moved. I asked Ted where the dam would have been placed. He thought near Weston Island. It seems to me if it would flood the cemetery, the village of Weston would too be flooded over. Obviously it never happened.
At the historical society are all the records and diaries that describe the Henry Farm days, as well as the livery stable days. Of course there is Weston history included.
Instead of an old saying, I offer this auction story: Bob Arbuckle ran an auction house on Route 10. One Saturday night prices were low, and Bob was passing items without a reasonable starting bid. A runner brought up a framed print of a cat. Bob, “Anna $50 dollar bid,” then “Anna $30 dollar bid.” Bob dropped down to “Anna $5 bid,” but no one bid. Bob said, “Put that cat to sleep.” Everyone laughed, and someone finally bid!