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Brattleboro Dawn Dances History - Notes

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1 Peter Stolley is now a violin-maker with a shop in Bellows Falls, VT.

2 These are my memories of unrecorded conversations with the Benson family in 1975-6.
3 John Quincy Adams. Life in a New England Town. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1903. [10/15/1787]
4 Hall Letters 221. Feb. 10, 1855; Rhodolph in Boston to Sarah in Brunswick. Collections of the Henry Ford Museum, Dearborn, MI.
5 Hall Letters 14. Feb. 16, 1844; Rhodolph in Lyme to D.C. in Hartford. Collections of the Henry Ford Museum, Dearborn, MI.
6 These items were researched from the New Hampshire Sentinel by Ralph Page and published in Northern Junket, "It's Fun to Hunt," V7#10.
7 Spirit of the Age, Woodstock, VT local item, 3/23/1887
8 Non-Dawn Dance-type events are not included in this Appendix, and so will receive individual footnotes.
9 The date given here is in fact the date of the newspaper advertisement, so that readers can refer to this event in the appendix of event data. I regret any confusion caused by the way in which these events were advertised (and referred to here): this event actually took place on the morning of Monday, 9/5/1926. This type of confusion may occur with the dates of other events, and it seems too tedious to explain every time.
10 These "Island Park" dances were actually held on an island in the Connecticut River, which legally was part of the State of New Hampshire, but was commonly referred to as being "in Brattleboro" since it was closer to Brattleboro than to any New Hampshire community. I have not researched the various court battles through which New Hampshire gained control of the river, but I have heard it said that when New Hampshire was granted title "as far as the high-water mark on the western shore," Vermont promptly sued for flood damage caused by New Hampshire's river. I report this, of course, merely as hearsay.
11 1925/07/03 Brattleboro Reformer advertisement, p.1.
12 I do not have a readily available authority for the demise of Island Park, but data on the flood damage and subsequent destruction of the pavilion is available from the Brattleboro Historical Society.
13 Vermont Phoenix, 7/20/1883 "Chesterfield Lake [Lake Spofford] There will be a dance at Farr's pavilion to-morrow evening, with music by Knapp & Burnett's orchestra. On Saturday of next week, 28th inst., there will also be one, with music by the military band orchestra. The season is proving an excellent one on the lake, there being a large number of arrivals daily from Keene, Brattleboro, and many other points." [see also] 7/27/1883 "Spafford [sic] Lake - The hop at Farr's pavilion last Saturday evening was well attended. Another will be held to-morrow evening with music by the Brattleboro band orchestra. There will also be dancing at Wood's pavilion the same evening.
14 See 9/4/1937 Brattleboro Reformer advertisement, p.1., "Roller skating every afternoon and evening."
15 E. Burnell Overlock. Sixty-Six Years a Country Fiddler Charles E. Overlock. Milo, ME: The Author, 1984. p.44.
16 Ibid.
17 E. Burnell Overlock, correspondence with the Author, undated [1985].
18 E. Burnell Overlock, correspondence with the Author, 8/24/1985.
19 Ibid.
20 E. Burnell Overlock. Sixty-Six Years a Country Fiddler Charles E. Overlock. Milo, ME: The Author, 1984, p.47.
21 E. Burnell Overlock, correspondence with the Author, 8/24/1985.
22 I state this from my personal experience of the disappearance of regular (or seasonal) square dances in places such as Halifax and Putney, VT.
23 Handbill, Big Mid-Night Dance, 9/1/1940. Ralph Page Collection, New Hampshire Library of Traditional Music & Dance, University of New Hampshire.
24 I have been told that for a number of years, Ralph Page called regularly at Putney School, a private "prep" school in Putney, VT, for instance.

© Michael McKernan 1995