Remembering Pager

We lost my father a few days ago. The memorial service was yesterday.

Pager's Obituary
Pager's Memorial Service
George's Comments at Pager's Memorial Service
Rebecca's Comments at Pager's Memorial Service

My comments at the memorial service yesterday included an explanation of the origin of the name "Pager" (rhymes with logger), the story of how my parents met, and the story of "Put's Palace." Rebecca's comments started out with a story about the famous breakfasts with grandchildren.

The photo above was taken in 1990 at Put's Palace. I wasn't blogging in 1999 when my mother died, but earlier this morning I put up a blog post about her:

Remembering Mother

Following are some of my favorite posts on the blog about Pager, newest on top:

100 Years Ago and Today (Christmas 2011)
Christmas 2009
Boulder Hi and Boulder Lo
A Man and His Horse
Changes in Pager's Lifetime
George's 2nd Birthday
Pager and Cat
Christmas 2008
Westview Farm
Pager's 93rd Birthday

Rebecca's Comments at Pager's Memorial Service

Click here for Rebecca's comments at Pager's memorial service

The photo above was taken at Christmas 1978.

George's Comments at Pager's Memorial Service

Click here for George's comments at Pager's Memorial Service

Above is the photo of Pager and Beth that I talked about. For more information about Boots, including photos, see this earlier blog post:

A Man and His Horse

Pager's Memorial Service

Click here for the full program from Pager's Memorial Service

Rev. Elizabeth Griffin is the retired minister of the United Church of Fairfax.

Rev. Robert Boutwell is also a retired minister. Florence Boutwell is Rev. Boutwell's wife. Her harp was made by their son, Bruce Boutwell. The Boutwells and the Putnams have been good friends since Rev. Boutwell was the minister in Cambridge and Jeffersonville in the 1960s.

Lorraine Wood is from Fairfax.

All of the above also did Grandma's memorial service at the United Church of Fairfax on July 26, 1999.

Courtney (Howard) Leitz is Barbara Howard's granddaughter.

Pager's Obituary

Harold Butler Putnam, 99, of Cambridge, Vermont, passed away on Tuesday, December 24, 2013 with family by his side. He was born on September 8, 1914 in the farmhouse at the Putnam Family Farm in Cambridge. His parents were the late J. Kinsley Putnam and Mabelle (Butler) Putnam.

Traveling by horse and buggy, Harold attended and graduated from Cambridge High School in Jeffersonville as the class Valedictorian in 1931. He attended the Vermont School of Agriculture, now Vermont Technical College, graduating in 1932. Following graduation he had a job with the Agricultural Conservation Program for a few years. Many years the farm hosted sugar-on-snow parties for the ACP staff.

On June 16, 1946 Harold married Lois Gould and together they ran the farm and raised four children. They were married for 53 years.

Harold was a lifelong dairy farmer, the 4th generation of Putnams on his dairy farm. He was innovative for his time, embracing change and adopting new technology. Electricity came to the farm in 1941. Harold was instrumental in getting it to this area by helping to secure right-of-ways from multiple landowners. Before baled hay he installed in his barn a hay dryer for drying hay faster. He later built a milking parlor and converted his tie stall barn to loose housing, both very uncommon at that time. Many years later he built a new modern design barn with a larger milking parlor and continued the loose housing concept for the cows.

Before the era of home freezers, he was a founding member and eventually President of Cambridge Cooperative Lockers, Inc., a village store that housed freezer space for food locker rental to community members. He was a trustee of the Cambridge Cemetery Association at the Mountain View Cemetery in Cambridge for 50 years. He was on the board of directors for Richmond Cooperative Association, Inc., a milk marketing co-op. He was active in many other farm organizations, including the Farm Bureau Co-op (a maple syrup co-op) and the United Farmers Cooperative Creamery Association. He was a deacon at the Cambridge United Church for many years. As a youth Harold was very active in the local 4-H and as an adult he was a 4-H leader for the children in the area.

Before the advent of the modern bulk tanks, milk was stored and kept cool in milk cans bathed in cool spring water. In 1950 Harold purchased a local milk route and picked up milk cans from the coolers at area farms for several years. For many years, he also drove a station wagon school bus to pick up school children from some of the back roads around Cambridge.

Maple sugaring was always a large part of Harold’s annual adventures. He witnessed many changes as he began the early years with buckets and gathering sap by horse and sled. Over the years this evolved through experimental trials using plastic tubing to collect the sap and then progressed to using vacuum to help increase sap yields. He then was able to witness the building of the 5th sugarhouse on the farm with the latest hi-tech tools for collecting sap and making syrup.

One of Harold’s hobbies was the growing and preservation of an old Vermont heritage flint corn. He grew and harvested this special variety for many years, marketing his corn meal from “Pager’s Gristmill” to local residents and area food establishments.

He was considered a local historian and often sought after by those with questions of how things used to be. He was instrumental in helping to establish the Cambridge Historical Society.

Harold is survived by three children: Beth (Putnam) Cole of Cambridge and her husband Jerome Cole; William H. Putnam of Cambridge and his wife Donna (Wilkinson) Putnam; and George S. Putnam of Jeffersonville and his wife Nancy (Carpenter) Putnam. Their families include 13 grandchildren and nine great grandchildren: Jennifer (Cole) Patterson, her husband Andrew Patterson and children Lillian and Rachel; Rebecca (Cole) Towne, her husband Steven Towne and daughter Anna; Geoffrey Cole, his wife Katie (Morrow) Cole and son Hunter; Deborah (Cole) Governale, her husband Nicholas Governale and son Evan; Jason Putnam; Travis Putnam and his wife Hollie Putnam; Carrie (Wilkinson) LaFountain, her husband David LaFountain and children Devin and Shyanne; Sarah (Wilkinson) Bradshaw, her husband Jeremy Bradshaw and children Haylee and Bryce; James Wilkinson; Craig Wilkinson; Brian Putnam; Emily Putnam; Laura Putnam. He also leaves a sister-in-law, Harriet (Gould) Karr Burnham, a special friend Barbara (Brewster) Howard, and several nieces, nephews and cousins.

Harold was predeceased by his wife in 1999, his son John K. Putnam in 1971, and his sister Elizabeth (Putnam) Taylor in 1997.

The family wishes to express their thanks to Lamoille Home Health & Hospice, Franklin County Rehab Center, and the many caregivers who helped with Harold’s care in recent years. Special thanks to Nancy Knapp, Theresa Wilcox, Patty Wells, Mary Skog, Sue McAdoo, Lorinda Smith, Betsy MaGee and the many volunteers for their caring devotion to Harold’s care.

Visiting hours will be held on Friday, December 27, 2013 from 3:00 – 6:00 p.m. at A. W. Rich Funeral Home – Fairfax Chapel, 1176 Main St., Fairfax, VT 05454. Funeral services will be held on Saturday, December 28, 2013 at 11:00 a.m. at United Church of Fairfax. Memorial donations in Harold’s memory may be made to the Cambridge Historical Society, P.O. Box 16, Jeffersonville, VT 05464. Inurnment will be private and at the convenience of the family.

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A short obituary appeared in the Burlington Free Press on 12/26/13 here. The long obituary above was published online on 12/26/13 here. Bill took the photo above on 12/14/03 at Put's Palace. I think the shirt Pager is wearing is the shirt discussed in the Putnam family history on p. 47, photo on p. 48.

Remembering Mother

Mother was born on March 17, 1916 and died on July 21, 1999. Her nickname was "Pat" because she was born on St. Patrick's Day.

I didn't start blogging until 2007 and so there isn't much on the blog about Mother. Above is a favorite wedding photo taken on June 16, 1946 at the Cambridge Community Church.

From 1999:

Mother's Obituary (3 MB PDF)
Mother's Memorial Service (1 MB PDF)

Later today I will publish several posts about Pager which will include information about Mother, including how they met. Following are older posts on the blog related to Mother:

What is a boy?
Clayton Burnham
Rural Uplook Service (about both the Gould and Putnam families)

100 Years Ago and Today

Pager's parents, Joel Kinsley Putnam and Mabelle Butler were married 100 years ago today. The photo above was taken at the farm on their wedding day. No white Christmas that year!

Beth still has Mabelle's wedding dress:

Above Pager celebrated Christmas today with Beth, Emily, Laura and Katie. Below with me, Brian and Geoff:

Beth gave Pager a copy of the new history of Cambridge (Special Places, Special People) by Roberta Marsh, published last month:

Christmas 2009

All three children plus Congcong were here for Christmas this year. Brian got a pair of snowshoes which he seems pretty excited about!

Pager came over for supper. Nancy had purchased two gifts for him — Canada Mints from Chutters and Sailing on the Ice: And Other Stories from the Old Squire's Farm by C.A. Stephens:

Pager keeps a supply of Canada Mints for visitors. And C.A. Stephens is an author Pager has liked since boyhood. He has recently been enjoying Stories from the Old Squire's Farm by C.A. Stephens.

Pager and me with our matching Yankee Farm Credit jackets and caps:

See also this post from last year.

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Boulder Hi & Boulder Lo

Behind Pager's house is a lilac garden that Travis created in 1999 in memory of Grandma. Here is Pager standing in the lilac garden in May 2006:

Note Bill's sugarhouse in the background. The thing in the center of the lilac garden is a potash kettle.

The subject of this post is the small building next to the lilac garden. Here are two better photos of the building. The first was taken in June 2000 when the lilac garden was young (and the sun was shining), and the second was taken yesterday (in the rain):


This building has an interesting history. It is currently used for storage. I can remember when we raised chickens in it. During World War II it sat on the hill above the Boyden Farm — Pager says it was intended to be a place where someone could stay to guard the electric power line from saboteurs, but it was never manned. Originally, however, this little building was a tourist cabin at the Big Spring in Smugglers Notch:

The Big Spring is still there, but without any sign or buildings (only a small parking lot). It is opposite the beginning of the Hell Brook Trail. In the 1930s there was a tourist attraction here called Boulder Cabin, and it included tourist cabins. The building behind Pager's house is one of the tourist cabins.

Pager talks about two tourist cabins: Boulder-Hi and Boulder-Lo. But apparently there was also Boulder-Ette and Boulder-Ite as well as a main building named Boulder Cabin. Here is an advertisement that was reprinted by the Cambridge Historical Society in 2006:

The advertisement does not say so, but Pager says the tourist attraction included a stocked trout pond fed by the Big Spring. Overnight guests could catch their dinner and have it cooked for them. (Confirmed in this book, p. 52.)

Boulder Cabin was run by Pearl Shafer and her husband. Before this area of Smugglers Notch was added to the Mount Mansfield State Forest in 1940, it was owned by L.S. Morse, a Cambridge lumberman and mill owner. Pearl was Mr. Morse's daughter. (The area where Smugglers Notch Resort is located was known as Morses Mill. The building now housing the restaurant Stella Notte was a boarding house for the sawmill workers.)

Here is a slightly damaged photo of two of the four tourist cabins at the Big Spring:

On the left is Boulder-Ite, and on the right is Boulder-Lo. Alas, we don't know which one of the four tourist cabins is the one behind Pager's house.

On the back of the building are these 1949 Vermont license plates:

Pager says the cabin came to the farm from the hill near Boydens in 1946.

A Man and His Horse

Recently I read to Pager a story about Morgan horses from this book. I mentioned to Pager that he must have had some horses on the farm that had Morgan blood in them, and he said yes. I asked if he remembered any of their names, and he said no. But after a few minutes he said that he remembered a horse named Beauty that he'd had as a young man. I said that was a nice name. He said she was a nice horse.

And then he said something that surprised me: "There's something between a man and a horse that you can't put into words."

I was surprised because I'd never heard Pager be this sentimental about a horse before. And I was also surprised because one doesn't hear this much any more. Maybe about a woman and a horse, but not so much about a man and a horse. (At least not in the east.) In my previous post I wrote about changes during Pager's lifetime. But here's one I missed—the use of horses has changed from almost exclusively by men to almost exclusively by women. I don't know why that should be, but it just is.

It turns out that Pager has a photo album about Beauty. Here's the first page (click on photos to enlarge):

The writing says: "Boots, born September 1936, purchased April 2, 1937, from C.J. Munn, Johnson, Vermont, priced at $65, named Beauty, nicknamed Boots while being used with Black Beauty." Black Beauty was another horse on the farm; the album has a photo of the two horses working together "haying at Gomo's."

Here is a photo of Pager holding Boots in front of the farmhouse in 1937 soon after she was purchased:

On the porch are Pager's parents, Mabell (normally spelled Mabelle?) and Kinsley, Pager's sister Elizabeth (mostly hidden), and a boarder named Edson Cook. Pager was 22 or 23 at the time.

The album has many pictures of Boots being trained or ridden, and of Boots pulling something such as a sleigh or a gathering tub of sap. But most of the photos are of Boots with young women. Boots was a chick magnet! There are six different single young women in the pictures, not counting Pager's sister Elizabeth. Here is a photo of Mother's sister, Evelyn Gould, in 1942:

And here are several photos of Mother (Lois Gould), probably about the same time:

Pager called her Pat (and she called him Put). The caption says: "Boots and Pat, let it go at that." Put and Pat were married on June 16, 1946.

Changes in Pager's Lifetime

I've been remiss about posting birthday celebrations. Pager's 95th birthday was on Tuesday, September 8, 2009. We celebrated at his house the day before, which was Labor Day.

I've been thinking about the changes that Pager has seen in his lifetime. (Pager is fond of noting that Europeans discovered this part of the world only 400 years ago, and he's been around for almost a quarter of that time.) The photo below is four years old (11/6/05) but it shows Pager listening to Laura's iPod Nano. Now there's some change!

Modern electronics like the iPod Nano and computers (including blogs) would not be possible without quantum mechanics. Quantum mechanics and relativity were the two major scientific developments of the 20th century. Both got started in the decade just before Pager was born, with major papers in both areas by Einstein in 1905.

What else was going on in the world when Pager was born on September 8, 1914? The Germans had just invaded Belgium and France the month before, starting World War I. But that didn't directly affect Pager. Let's consider how the world looked to Pager.

When Pager was a boy, the most advanced method of transportation available to him at home on the farm was a horse & buggy. If he rode in the buggy to Cambridge village, two miles away, he could board a steam train. No cars or tractors. Certainly no commercial airplanes. No radio or TV, and certainly no computers. No electricity! Artificial light was by candle or lantern. Pager's parents did have a telephone at the farm. In fact, they had to use the telephone on the day he was born. It was a difficult birth, and he might not have made it into the world if the telephone had not been available to call a doctor. Of course, the telephone technology was different from today. Not many people today remember the crank telephone.

Here are a few milestones in communications and transportation in the years before Pager was born:

- steam engines (first commercial steam railroad 1830)
- telegraph (1844)
- telephone (1876)
- internal combustion engines (1876)
- radio (1902)
- propeller airplanes (Wright Brothers—1903)
- automobiles (first widely available car—Model T—1908)

Other major developments, that we now take for granted, did not come until later—in the 1930s. The first major television broadcast was the Berlin Olympics in 1936. Jet airplanes were first flown by the Germans in 1939. In 1936 the British mathematician Alan Turing proposed his concept of universal computation, the so-called Turing machine, which eventually led to the computer that we know today.

The first car at the Putnam farm, a Model T, came in 1921, when Pager was 6 or 7. Electricity did not come to the farm until 1941, when Pager was 26 or 27. The first tractor on the farm was in 1943—a "Doodle Bug," really an old Model A truck that had been modified for field work. Until that time, all field work was done with horses. Pager was the one who introduced tractors to the farm. No doubt his father couldn't understand why horses weren't perfectly adequate.

If I make a list of the biggest changes that Pager has seen, I come up with the following: cars; tractors; electricity; modern telephone; radio; TV; computers; the Internet; jet airplanes; putting a man on the Moon in 1969; space probes to all of the planets; 15 million dead in World War I—at the time the worst war the world had ever seen, but soon to be eclipsed by 50 million dead in World War II; 25-50 million dead in the influenza pandemic of 1918-1919; the right to vote for women in 1920; the atomic bomb; nuclear energy; refrigeration; antibiotics; biotechnology; the rise of the carbon-based economy (soon to fall?); the rise and fall of communism (another 25-50 million dead).

Please feel free to add your thoughts in the comments on what you think are the biggest changes that Pager has seen in his lifetime.

UPDATE 11/27/09: Here's something I forgot to mention—Vermont is much more wooded now than it was when Pager was born. In 1910, Vermont was 70% cropland and pastureland. In 2002 it was only 11% cropland and pastureland, with most of the rest being woods (some is cities, villages and roads). Source: Census of Agriculture. I wrote about this for work here and here (first comment).

George's 2nd Birthday

While looking through Pager's photo albums recently, I found this picture of me on my 2nd birthday:

Also in the photo is Pager (he was "Daddy" then, simply "Dad" later), Grandpa (J. Kinsley Putnam) and Beth. My guess is that what everyone is smiling at is Pager wiggling his ears. Pager had a way of wiggling his ears without moving any other muscles that fascinated us kids.

A few days ago I showed this picture to Pager and explained what I thought was going on. I asked him if he could still wiggle his ears. Instantly, he did! He still can wiggle his ears in a way that I've never seen anyone else do.

At the time of this picture (1957), Pager was 42, Grandpa was 83 and Beth was 9 almost 10. The photo was taken in the kitchen at the farmhouse. Note the blackboard on the wall behind the table. It was used extensively to write notes to family members.

Pager and Cat

In Pager's lilac garden on May 24, 2009 (Memorial Day weekend):

The photo isn't about the lilacs; it's about the cat, which had hopped up on the potash kettle for some attention.

Christmas 2008

All three children were home for Christmas: Brian from Boston, Emily from New Zealand and Laura from Colorado. It was the first time they were all home together since Laura's graduation last June.

Brian bought himself a Wii this fall, which he brought with him. We enjoyed auto racing! Brian took this photo on his new iPhone:

Pager came over for breakfast on Christmas Day (note the matching Yankee Farm Credit jackets and caps):

The fluffy thing on the chair behind Pager is a piece of sheepskin for him from New Zealand:


Laura decided that she didn't like our home printer, and so she and Brian bought a new printer/copier/scanner for me for Christmas. Now I can scan items for the blog! As a Christmas present for Nancy and me, Emily made a wonderful scrapbook of our two weeks in New Zealand. Here is a scanned page from the scrapbook with some items that didn't make it onto the blog:

The spiral stone stairway is what we climbed inside the steeple tower of Christchurch Cathedral. (See this post.) The "cage" is at the top of the 134 step climb—note the view of the city behind us. The ticket is from the Christchurch Tram.

Westview Farm

The white sign on this barn is no longer readable, but it used to say "Westview Farm":

This is the barn at the Huffman's, just west of Bill's farm on Route 15. This was the farm of Luther Putnam (1842-1929), who was Pager's grandfather. More pictures of the barn:



Joel Putnam (1814-1908) came to what is now Bill's farm in 1854. This farm came to be known as "Wayside Farm." Joel had one child who survived into adulthood, the aforementioned Luther (1842-1929). In the 1870s Luther started farming next door, on what came to be known as "Westview Farm."

"The two farms were worked together a good deal and the pastures were never fenced apart as long as Luther lived." (From "History of the Putnam Farm," by J. Kinsley Putnam, 1948; included in "The Story of the Putnams," by Harold and Lois Putnam, 1994.) Although the two farms were adjacent, they were in different towns and different counties. Wayside Farm was in the town of Cambridge (Lamoille County) while Westview Farm was in the town of Westford (Chittenden County).

Luther Putnam had nine children from two marriages. Five children survived into adulthood. One was J. Kinsley Putnam (1874-1967) who took over Wayside Farm from his grandfather, Joel. Another was Alice, who married Lester Cook. Alice and Lester Cook took over Westview Farm from Luther. Westview Farm passed out of the family in 1965, after both Lester and Alice died. Wayside Farm stayed in the family, passing from Kinsley to his son, Harold (Pager), and then to Bill. It is now known as the Putnam Family Farm.

Wayside Farm was mostly known for dairy and maple products. But Westview Farm was mostly known for its horticultural products. The first major product was potatoes. Luther "collected over 100 varieties and kept them distinct, and from 1880 for 10 or 12 years he took most of the prizes at State and County fairs and established a good trade in seed potatoes earning the title of Potato King." (ibid)

Later on, Luther became well known for apples. In 1895 he built the "fruit house." This is the house across from the Huffman's, where the Fosse's now live. Luther built this house to store apples, and only later converted it into a dwelling. Luther sold apples, and probably small amounts of other fruit, both wholesale and retail. I have seen an old newspaper photo of a retail roadside stand directly across the road from the barn pictured above, which the accompanying article said was the first roadside stand in Vermont. Here is what Kinsley had to say about it: "About 1900 the State took over the main roads including No. 15, Burlington to St. Johnsbury, and with automobile travel there was sale for fruit at a wayside stand and here Luther Putnam did a prosperous business until his death [1929]." (ibid)

One last item about the barn pictured above: I can remember as a kid helping a crew of neighbors put on the metal roofing that you see in the picture.

Feel free to add additional information or memories about Westview Farm in the comments!

UPDATE: When I was growing up, the Coolums lived in the "fruit house": Joyce and Henry, and their son Greg. Joyce died on 5/23/08, the day before her 87th birthday. The obituary was published in the Burlington Free Press on 5/31/08 (it's easier to search the online obituaries if you know the name and date of publication). Henry and Greg both died years ago and Joyce had been in a nursing home for several years.

CORRECTION: Joyce and Henry Coolum's son was Creg not Greg.

Potash Kettles

I recently published a post on my work blog (the Yankee ACA Blog) that is also of personal interest:

The Forgotten Potash Economy

The first picture of a potash kettle is in Pager's lilac garden. (Thanks, Laura, for the photo.) Note Bill's farm and sugarhouse through the lilac bushes. The second picture is in Beth and Jerry's front yard.

The article that I linked to in that post ("The First Patent") is an interesting history of the hugely important potash industry of the late 1700s and early 1800s. I highly recommend reading it. It is also interesting to note that for many years it was mistakenly thought that a Vermonter was awarded the first U.S. patent in 1790.

Pager's 93rd birthday

Sept. 8, 2007 was Pager's 93rd birthday. We had a family gathering and dessert at our house. There are four generations (via Donna's family) in the photo below. Pager is sitting on his birthday present—a wooden bench to go in his lilac garden, behind his house.

Standing, left to right:
Carrie Lafountain
David Lafountain
Jerry Cole
Bill Putnam
Jason Putnam
Donna Putnam
Beth Cole

Sitting on bench:
Pager
Devin Lafountain
Yvonne Bartlett (Donna's mother)

Sitting on deck:
George
Laura
Shyanne Lafountain
Nancy

Not in the picture (because she took it!): Camila