Windsor County Court, September 3

Arthur Hammond, DOB 1/6/46, pled not guilty to a charge of violating an abuse prevention order and a charge of violating conditions of release, in Hartford on September 1. He also pled not guilty to a charge of violating an abuse prevention order in Hartford on July 16.

Joseph Prokop, DOB 3/24/40, pled not guilty to charges of violating an abuse prevention order and violating conditions of release in Springfield on September 2. He also was charged with domestic assault on June 1, and violating an abuse prevention order on July 24.

Tina Quigg, DOB 5/13/63. pled not guilty to a charge of domestic assault in Windsor on September 2

Tristan Haley, DOB 11/25/83, pled not guilty to a charge of 2^nd degree domestic assault and unlawful restraint in Hartford.

Donna Deane, DOB 12/1//68, pled not guilty to a charge of driving with a suspended license, in Rochester on July 25

Stanley Boyce, DOB 2/17/60, pled not guilty to charges of domestic abuse and resisting arrest, in Hartford on September 1

Hunter Dwyer, DOB 4/29/93, pled not guilty to charges of aggravated operation of a motor vehicle without owner consent, his first DUI, leaving the scene of an accident, and alcohol consumption by a minor, in Sharon on August 24

Jordan Huntley, DOB 11/19/91, pled not guilty to a charge of sexual assault of a victim under age 16, in Royalton in July

Duane Blanchard, DOB 12/7/61, pled not guilty to a charge of operating a vehicle with a suspended license, in Springfield on July 10

Casey Chase, DOB 5/14/85, pled not guilty to a charge of unlawful trespass attempt into an occupied residence in Springfield on August 22

Joseph Russo, DOB 11/20/96, was charged with unlawful mischief and disorderly conduct/noise in Windsor on July 24

Emerson Safford, DOB 4/19/90, pled guilty to his first DUI, in Hartland on August 24

Jeffrey Sampson, Dob 10/11/60, pled not guilty to a charge of his first DUI in Rochester on August 24

Evan Marsh, DOB 5/11/89, pled guilty to charges of operating to elude, and reckless and negligent operation of a motor vehicle in Hartford on July 20

James Shields, DOB 11/11/76, pled guilty to driving with a suspended license in Springfield on July 11

Lamar Moss, DOB 5/25/85, pled not guilty to a charge of driving under the influence of drugs, alcohol or both in Hartford on August 4

Christopher Nightingale, DOB 2/21/69, pled not guilty to charges of lewd and lascivious conduct with a child, and lewd and lascivious conduct, in Ascutney, between January of 2004 and June of 2006.

Baseball's Beginnings

At the turn of the century, the town of Barnard had a baseball team, the Silver Lake team. Woodstock, White River Junction and Lebanon also had teams. In small towns throughout America, people were crazy for baseball, as it was becoming the “national pastime”. Even the thought of a “pastime” was a new concept. Industrialization and mechanization was enabling Americans to have enough leisure time to either play a sport, or follow their home teams as spectators.

Baseball developed from British stickball games, espe cially a game called Rounders. Rounders was played with a bat and a ball. Batters hit the ball and ran around four bases to try to make it all the way around the bases without being “out”. In Rounders, as in baseball, there were nine players out in the field, trying to get the runners “out”. Rounders was different from baseball in that the ball is shorter and is swung one-handed. There are no strikes – if the pitch is good, the batter has to run automatically – and be out if the ball isn't in play, or have a chance if the ball was hit out to the field. There are no gloves used in Rounders. The bases are marked with posts rather than bases and the setup of the field is a little different, especially the position of home base and the bowler (the pitcher). A Rounders field is set up as a square, rather than a diamond, as was baseball in the beginning. Rounders was sometimes called baseball. One of the first references to baseball in literature was in a children's book, “A Little Pretty Pocket-Book”, published in 1744 by John Newbery, famous children's author and illustrator. (The Newbery Prize, given yearly to the best children's book of that year, is named after John Newbery). As Americans played Rounders, they changed the rules and the layout of the field, developing the game of baseball. 

 

 

Why did baseball become America's national game, rather than soccer or football? One of the biggest reasons was that a baseball player was less likely to get injured than a soccer player or a football player. An American farmer (or blacksmith) could play baseball on a Saturday afternoon and be reasonably sure he would still be able to milk cows, tend his crops or go back to the forge the next day. Football was played mostly by Ivy League college students who were independently wealthy and did not have to depend on their physical strength and health to earn a living.

Baseball began as a rural or small-town pastime, and aspects of the game's farm and village beginning linger in the game today. Baseball uses bases rather than the posts of Rounders because the posts were permanent. Rounders fields were permanent, but with baseball, at the end of the game, you could pick up the bases and the field went back to being a pasture, hayfield or whatever. The bases were often grain bags, which is why we still speak of “tagging the bag”. When I was a kid, baseball and softball bases were still “bags”. Bats were wooden, and to this day, the major leagues use only wooden bats.

Baseball became popular in northeastern towns and villages, as young men formed baseball clubs to organize teams. The rules of the game varied with locale. Clubs got together and formed leagues, to schedule games between clubs. Leagues were also important because all the clubs in a league played by the same rules. It would be impossible to play baseball if each team followed different rules. Here, I write about baseball teams, but officially, and if you really know baseball, you still speak of the teams as “clubs”, and on the major league level, each club has a manager rather than a head coach.

By the 1850's, baseball players had started promoting baseball as America's “national pastime”. The following decade, there wasn't much in the way of “pastime” during the Civil War. The men were off fighting and the women were home trying to keep the farms and households going during the absence of their husbands and fathers. As we know from the story of Seth's father and the 16^th Vermont, soldiers had a lot of down time. They often passed the time playing baseball, and many returned home with a love of the game. This, combined with a new national fervor after the Civil War, combined to cement America's love affair with baseball during the end of the 19^th century.

Baseball was as popular in Vermont during that era as it was nationwide. Jackie Calder of the Vermont Historical Society is quoted on the VHS website: “The town teams in the early part of the 20^th century were the heart and souls of many communities in the Green Mountain State. There were at least 200 teams in small towns across the state." Baseball games were often the focus of county fairs, Fourth of July and Memorial Day celebrations. (Speaking of Memorial Day, when I was looking through the Town of Barnard's town reports from the late 1800's, I saw Charles Aikens listed as a participant in the Memorial Day activities in the late 1890's, no doubt as a veteran of the Civil War.)

There are many baseball related terms of speech. We speak of someone being “way off base” or “out in left field”, or “striking out”. I'm always saying “give me a ballpark figure” when I ask my husband to estimate something. To “cover your bases” means that you have taken whatever steps you need to make sure everyone is safe. A “heavy hitter” is a force to be reckoned with. Another phrase I like to use is “It's hit or miss”. Meaning, either it's successful or it's not – referring to a batter either hitting or missing the ball. My sister always says, “It was a home run”, meaning something great just happened. When you say, “That guy needs to step up to the plate”, we mean he needs to fulfill his responsibilities. I also often say, “Right off the bat, that kid had a rough day”, a baseball term that means “at the very beginning”.

Windsor County Court August 27th continued

Rhonda Rice, DOB 8/12/69 pled not guilty to a charge of resisting arrest in Hartford on August 17

Jeremy Hurd, DOB 10/31/72, pled not guilty to careless or negligent operation of a motor vehicle, and leaving the scene of an accident, in Windsor on June 7

David Thibodeau, DOB 4/23/59, pled not guilty to his 4^th, or subsequent DUI, in Hartland on August 21

Kyle Mullen, DOB 3/13/91, pled not guilty to three counts of grand larceny, regarding the theft of motorcycles, in Norwich on July 27

Amy Cole, DOB 10/14/79, pled not guilty to a charge of retail theft in Springfield on July 2. Cole also pled not guilty to charges of selling heroin and aiding in the commission of a felony in Springfield on February 7

Francis Lajoice, DOB 5/18/59, pled not guilty to a charge of domestic assault in Springfield on June 4

Besnik Nisimi, DOB 9/4/82, pled not guilty to two charges of assaulting a police officer, and charges of aggressive assault with a weapon, and resisting arrest, in Springfield on August 7

Peter VanSchoik, DOB 7/18/52, pled not guilty to a charge of his first DUI, in Hartford on August 18

Cody Greenslit, DOB 5/24/88, pled not guilty to a charge of unlawful trespass on August 6 in Springfield.

Laura McGuire, DOB 8/2/78 pled not guilty to a charge of petit larceny in Ludlow on July 11

Dale Adams, DOB 8/25/65, pled not guilty to violating an abuse prevention order in Hartford on July 16

James Clark, DOB 5/15/76 pled not guilty to driving with a suspended license, in South Royalton on July 30. He was also charged with driving with a suspended license on June 20.

Michael Descoteaux, DOB 8/11/76, pled not guilty to a charge of his first DUI, in Springfield on August 17

Michael Mills, DOB 8/18/86, pled not guilty to a charge of driving with a suspended license, in Weathersfield on June 14. He was also charged with driving suspended in Cavendish on July 11

Todd Libby, DOB 7/3/69, pled nolo contendre to a charge of simple assault in Hartford on July 5

Laura Farrington, DOB 8/16/65, pled not guilty to a charge of giving false information to a police officer in Bethel on June 4

Kenneth Bourt, DOB 10/30/70 pled not guilty to a charge of driving with a suspended license in Ludlow on June 7

William Snow, DOB 4/19/61, pled guilty to a charge of driving with a suspended license in Hartford on July 16

David Collins, DOB 12/2/63, pled not guilty to a charge of his 3^rd DUI, and reckless operation of a motor vehicle, in Chester on August 10

Megan Machado, DOB 4/15/86, pled guilty to a charge of retail theft, in Springfield on May 15

Kristina Morgan, DOB 6/5/89, pled not guilty to a charge of burglary in Springfield on March 29. She was also charged with identify theft in February, and with heroin possession on March 1

Seth Aikens and Baseball

Charles Aikens died of arteriosclerosis in 1918, when he was 85 years old. Seth was 44 years old, married and a father of three boys. We can assume that he had been running the blacksmith shop for a while. Although Charles was still shoeing oxen for the town of Barnard in 1899, when he was 66 years old, the 1903 Barnard town reports shows Seth being paid for tools and repairs to equipment used in maintaining the town and state roads. In some ways, I can imagine someone hanging on to the way things were until the end of the century, and then being willing to start a new chapter of their life at the dawn of a new era.

I found Seth in the book “Barnard, A Look Back”, published by the Barnard Historical Society in 1982. There is a picture of him standing in front of the blacksmith shop, a picture of him sitting in a lawnchair as an elderly man, with the caption “Seth 'Gramp' Aikens, who was quite a baseball player in his younger days” and in a team portrait, taken around the turn of the century, of the Silver Lake Baseball team. The caption doesn't tell us which player is which, unfortunately. I admit that I tend to wring a lot of meaning out of very little information, but I think this tells us a lot about Seth Aikens. Most importantly, he was popular enough that the whole town called him “Gramp”, in his old age. He had enough leisure time, and athletic ability, to play baseball well into middle age, since he was 36 in 1900. This is the advantage to working with your father – that you had the time to devote to an activity like playing baseball, when many of the farmers in Barnard were working at back-breaking labor 365 days a year.

 

 

 

 

“The Vermont Standard” doesn't mention the Silver Lake Baseball team during the summers that Seth played ball. Baseball is important enough to get some press, though. In the July 23, 1885 issue, there was an announcement that read, “There will be a game of baseball tomorrow between the Woodstocks and The Junctions, and there is talk of a special train over the Woodstock Railroad to transport spectators to the game.” This is interesting. Where was the game – at Woodstock or at White River? What time was the game? What time did the train leave? In an era without telephones, how would you get this information if you wanted to go to the game? Otherwise, you rode your horse and wagon, or your horse and carriage, down to White River or up to Woodstock to watch your team play.

Also during the summer of 1885, the town of Woodstock supplied the boys of the town with a baseball field. “The Standard” states, “In compliance with the citizens, town trustees have prohibited ballplaying in the parks and streets of the village, but, recognizing that the boys must have some place for play, have rented for them, at the expense of the village, the baseball grounds at the fairgrounds.” So in 1885, the town of Woodstock felt that the boys there must have some place to play baseball, and found them a place to play where they wouldn't annoy the rest of the town.

Woodstock must have been quite a baseball town. An obituary in the Vermont Standard of July 24, 1890 tells a sad tale of a baseball related death. It seems that on July 17^th, James Hazzard and Charles Pratt had gone to a baseball game in Lebanon between the “Woodstock Nine” and the Lebanon team. The next day, the went on a fishing trip, to a pond in Grafton, New Hampshire. While fishing on the pond, their boat capsized. Charles Pratt made it to shore but James Hazzard drowned. The obituary goes on to add the interesting detail that James Hazzard's father, “UncleTom Hazzard”, was a colored man who had originally lived in Barnard and later moved to Woodstock.

Windsor County Court August 27

Joseph Prokop, DOB 3/24/40, pled not guilty to a charge of domestic assault in Springfield on June 1

Prokop was also charged with violating an abuse prevention order on July 24

John Walker, DOB 8/20/77, pled not guilty to a charge of his first DUI, in Ludlow on August 3

David Ziegler, DOB 02/20/87, pled not guilty to a charge of his 3^rd DUI in Hartford on June 20

Susan Watkins, DOB 3/14/61, pled not guilty to a charge of her first DUI, in Springfield on August 14

Naomi Gero, DOB 3/7/83, pled not guilty to a charge of unlawful trespass in Hartford on July 11. Gero was in the Co-op Grocery Store after having been served a no-trespassing order for that establishment. Gero also pled not guilty to a charge of heroin/hallucinogen possession in Hartford on June 1

Todd Hosmer, DOB 2/10/64, pled not guilty to operating a motor vehicle with a suspended license, and violating conditions of release, in Royalton on August 4

Kelly Rondeau, DOB 3/18/72, pled not guilty to a charge of her first DUI, in Hartford on August 15

Jason Graves, DOB 12/30/74, pled guilty to a charge of operating a motor vehicle with a suspended license, in Springfield on June 28

Joshua Honkala, DOB 6/18/78, pled not guilty to charges of his 4^th DUI, and test refusal, in Royalton on August 12

Orion Pfenning, DOB 2/26/95, pled not guilty to a charge of his first DUI, in Ludlow on August 10. He had prior charges of simple assault, reckless endangerment, weapons at school, and possession of marijuana.

Robin Powell, DOB 4/6/79, pled not guilty to a charge of her 1^st DUI, in Hartford on August 13

Timothy Cottrell, DOB 1/8/93, was charged with his first DUI and consumption of alcohol as a minor, in Royalton on August 15

 See article about Naomi Gero's arrest for possession of narcotics at http://www.vermonttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/RH/20130606/NEWS02/706069929
 

Maintaining Vermont's Roads at the Turn of the Century

Yesterday I went to the Barnard Town Clerk's office, to look in the town reports for any mention of Seth Aikens in the early 1900's. The first town report available was for 1865 or so, and of course I couldn't resist, so I started at the beginning, and spent an hour and a half perusing the ancient town reports to find any mention of Charles Aikens.

The first time C.C. Aikens is mentioned in the town reports is in 1873. He was paid $10.97 for blacksmith work for the poor farm. According to the online inflation calculator, that would be 207.23 in 2012. The incomes and expenditures for the poor farm took up more space than any other subject in the Barnard Town Report. About every five years, there would be a report from the School Superintendent, but the poor farm took up page after page of detailed figures. Charles did blacksmithing for the poor farm every year until the turn of the century. After 1900, the affairs of the poor farm were outlined in even more detail, but blacksmith services weren't listed.

Charles did quite a bit of work for the town. He also worked on several bridges, including the Putnam Bridge in 1880. Barnard must have needed a lot of road work done in 1890, because the town paid Charles to shoe oxen for roadwork. Although the report for 1890 listed $250 ($6,290 today) worth of road equipment as an assett owned by the town, it did not list any oxen. Probably oxen were rented from a local farmer, and part of the deal was that the town would pay to have them shoed. Of course I knew that blacksmiths shoed horses, but I hadn't even thought about shoeing oxen until now. Charles also mended some chains, repaired the road machine, and made or fixed some tools to be used in roadbuilding.

The blacksmith of the late 19^th and early 20^th century made the shovels and rakes that highway workers used to maintain the roads. In 1892 and 1893 Charles himself is listed as one of the men who was paid for road work. In those days, each man had to serve his time as a road worker. It was part of your duty to the town you lived in, like paying your taxes.

By the end of the Civil War, Vermont's chief industry was dairy farming, and Southern New England was the recipient of Vermont butter and cheese. In 1869, Vermont was the first state to have a Dairyman's Association, and the main goal of this organization was to pressure the Vermont legislature to do something about the deplorable condition of the state's roads, to make it easier for Vermont farms to ship their products south.

I noticed that for the first time in 1893, Barnard had a road superintendent who submitted a summary of the year's road work for publication in the town report. Online research led me to a 1985 article written by Samuel Hand, Jeffrey Marshall and D. Gregory Sanford, “Little Republics”. In reading the article, I learned that in 1892, the Vermont legislature passed a law that said that every Vermont town had to elect a highway commissioner and levy a tax of twenty cents on the grand list for the upkeep of roads.

The road superintendent’s yearly summary included a list of men who were paid to work on the roads, but after 1900, it seemed like the same men worked on the roads year after year. It was a road crew of sorts, although those men weren't on a payroll like a road crew would be today. They worked as day laborers, but could count on that income every year, probably, and the road superintendent counted on them to be available to work. These same men likely did other day labor jobs around the town as well, like working during maple sugaring season, putting up cordwood, and haying for various farmers.

I asked the Old Redneck what kind of ox-drawn machinery would a town have used on roads. His immediate answer was “a grader”. Barnard also probably had a snow roller for use during the winter. Until the advent of the automobile, snowy roads were rolled rather than plowed. Rollers packed down the snow to allow sleighs to glide along the top of it. Rollers were also pulled by oxen or draft horses. Both the roller and the grader would have needed the services of a blacksmith to repair them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

horse or ox drawn road grader

 

In 1899, CC Aikens was still shoeing oxen for the town of Barnard, but in 1903, S.B. Aikens is listed as having provided blacksmith services to the town in the form of tools and repairs for town and state highway work. This was the first time I noticed the mention of the state highway, and also the first time Seth is mentioned in a town report. This isn't surprising. In 1903, Charles was 70 years old and Seth was 39.  Time for Charles to start handing over the reins to his son.                          snow roller                 

Windsor County Court August 20

Joseph Prokop, DOB 3/24/40, pled not guilty to a charge of domestic assault in Springfield on June 1.

He was also charged with a violation of an abuse prevention order.

John Walker, DOB 8/20/77, pled not guilty to a charge of his first DUI, in Ludlow on August 3.

David Ziegler, DOB 2/20/876, pled not guilty to a charge of his 3^rd DUI in Hartford on June 20. He was also charged with unlawful trespass in Royalton in February of 2012.

Susan Watkins, DOB 3/14/61, pled not guilty to a charge of her first DUI in Springfield on August 14

Naomi Gero, DOB 3/7/83, pled not guilty to a charge of unlawful trespass-land, in Hartford on July 11. Gero was in the Co-op grocery store after the store had filed a no trespass order against her. Gero as also charged with possession of heroin, a hallucinogen, or both, in Hartford on June 1.

Todd Hosmer, DOB 2/10/64, pled not guilty to charge of operating a motor vehicle with a suspended license and violating conditions of release in Royalton on August 4.

Kelly Rondeau, DOB 3/18/72, pled not guilty to a charge of her first DUI in Hartford on August 15

Jason Graves, DOB 12/30/74, pled guilty to a charge of operating a motor vehicle with a suspended license in Springfield on June 28

Joshua Honkala, DOB 6/18/78, pled not guilty to charges of his 4^th DUI, and DUI test refusal, in Royalton on August 12

Orion Pfenning, DOB 2/16/95, pled not guilty to a charge of his 1^st DUI, in Ludlow on August 10. He had prior charges of simple assault and reckless endangerment in Windsor on February 20, and had further charges of having weapons at school, and possession of marijuana.

Robin Powell, DOB 4/6/79, pled not guilty to a charge of her 1^st DUI, in Hartford on August 13

Charles and Jane Eliza Aikens

It's been a while since I've written about Charles Aikens, who was the Gettysburg veteran and a blacksmith in Barnard, Vermont. I think I just have a hard time letting these people go. I've been researching Charles for a while, first in regards to Gettysburg, and then from the blacksmith angle. I was so fascinated by the 16^th Vermont Infantry, that my husband and I went to Gettysburg to the 150^th reenactment. We had been there before, but this time I knew much more about the part Vermont troops played in the battle. I read “Nine Months to Gettysburg” out loud on the way down there. Coffin includes instructions on how to trace the route the 16^th took north to Gettysburg. We tried it, and managed to get pretty far on it, but it just took too long and finally we gave up. To think that they marched that long way, and we couldn't even stick with it in a car. It really makes you appreciate interstates.

Anyway, Jane Eliza Paddock was Charles' wife, and they were married on September 17, 1856. Jane's father was Ebenezer Paddock. In 1850, Jane was 12 years old and lived with her father and two siblings, Lauriette and Augustus. Charles and Jane got married in Royalton,in 1856, when Charles was 23 and Jane was 16. The next year, they had a daughter, Nellie, who died when she was about a year old, of burns she got from hot water. They also had a stillborn son, before their son Seth was born in July of 1864.

On the day Seth was born, his father was right in the thick of the fighting in the Siege of Petersburg. He stayed in the Union Army until Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia, in April of 1865, and was not mustered out until June 15, 1865, in Brattleboro. Seth would have been almost a year old. We don't know if Charles came home from the war on leave to see his newborn son, but my guess is that he did not.

Eliza was born in 1841, which would have made her 16 years old in 1857. Charles enlisted in the Union Army for the second time in December of 1863, and was mustered in on New Year's Day, 1864. Since Seth was born on July 9, it is possible that Eliza didn't know she was pregnant when Charles left in January. She had lost a baby daughter, given birth to a stillborn son, and she was 23 years old, and pregnant again, while her husband was off fighting in the Union Army.

Who was she living with while Charles was away? In 1860, the census shows Charles and Eliza Aikens living in Enfield, New Hampshire with Elijah and Indiannah Shattuck. Charles worked for Elijah Shattuck as a blacksmith. However, he clearly was credited to the town of Barnard when he enlisted into the Union Army in August of 1862. I'm quite sure that Eliza stayed in Barnard while Charles was at war. She had a stillborn son in June of 1863, approximately during the time when Stannard's troops were marching toward Gettysburg, and the baby's death certificate indicates that Eliza was living in Barnard. Seth's birth certificate is not available on Ancestry.com, but his wedding certificate says that he was born in Barnard. These two documents seem to indicate that she stayed in Barnard. Charles' sister Maria lived in Barnard. She was married and had no children until 1866. It's possible that Eliza lived with Maria and her husband while Charles was gone. It's also possible that Eliza lived in her own house. She and Charles could have bought a house before the war. I think this is unlikely, because even if she lived in her own house, she would have needed help paying the bills, growing the food and getting in firewood.

As we know, Charles came back to Barnard and lived the rest of his life there, earning his living as a blacksmith. Charles and Eliza never had another baby after Seth, so he grew up as an only child, helping his father in the blacksmith shop when he got old enough. Seth eventually took his father's place as a blacksmith in Barnard, but it appears as though he didn't really take over until he was in his late 30's or early 40's. In the Windsor County Gazette and Business Directory of 1883, Charles Aikens is listed as a blacksmith. Charles was 50 years old and Seth was 19. In 1895 Windsor County Gazette, the entry for Charles Aikens says “C.C. Aikens and son”. Charles was 62 and Seth was 31. In 1900, Seth has gained some status, because the entry for that year lists both Charles and Seth's initials, as “C.C. Aikens and S.B. Aikens”. Charles was 69 years old and Seth was 36.

You wonder if Charles was doing a lot of work at 69 years old, or if he was head of the business in name only, and Seth was really running the business and doing most of the work. Charles died in 1918 of arteriosclerosis, at age 85. Jane Eliza died 7 years before him, in 1911. When Charles was 69, he still had twenty years to go, and in the 1800's, many if not most people worked until they were absolutely too infirm to work. There was no concept of retirement. Probably Charles and Seth were equal partners at that point, but really, at 36 years old, Seth was probably ready to take charge of the business. When Charles died, Seth was 54 years old. It is certainly most likely that by that time, he had been doing most of the business in the blacksmith shop for a number of years, but it's impossible to tell for how long. There is no “Windsor County Gazette” in the Vermont History library for any year after 1900, and my guess is that they weren't published into the twentieth century.