Community update November 30:   Good morning from Vernon. Sunny today with a high near 40.    Town hall is open. The Treasurer’s office has it’s own outside entrance . Please call 802 257 3077 or email treasurer@vernonvt.org.     The Town Clerk’s office is closing at 2 PM today, as I have another medical appointment. I guess you could call me the six million dollar man and that’s just the co pay.       The Capital Plan committee has a 630 PM meeting on line via google meets, https://meet.google.com/rsj-htan-gny        The Conservation Commission may have a quorum attending the Home for the Holidays craft fair at Vernon School Friday between 4 and 8, and Saturday 9 till 3. The Friends of Vernon Center will also hold their festival of trees on Friday Saturday and Sunday at the Governor Hunt House, across the street from the school.          Today is trash and recycling pick up day. Pay as you throw bags can be purchased at the Town Clerk’s office, at the Vernon Free Library, Guilford Country Store and J Spec Auto.           Town offices are always closed on Fridays, but we are available in an emergency and by appointment.            Have a good day and a great weekend.

TEST TW WEATHER

Tales from the Whithed Cemetery — Part II

Julius O. Frost

By Barbara Emery Moseley

Unlike the Polly Lee Cemetery, which has been “lost” (as described in our previous series, Stones and Bones), the Whithed Cemetery remains intact. It is located on Fort Bridgman Road (Route 142) near the intersection with Newton Road, about opposite 3413 Fort Bridgman Rd.

A pair of granite posts engraved with the name Whithed Cemetery mark its entrance. Most of the stones bear the Whithed name, including a large monument honoring Mr. Gad Whithed, who died June 24, 1850, aged 83 years. In the far corner, toward Route 142, are several stones bearing the Frost name.

Most imposing is a large polished granite monument near the entrance. Its inscription reads “Julius O. Frost, son of Jesse and Sophia Frost, died October 12, 1913, aged 73 years.” Beneath his name is inscribed “Ellen Morris Hunt Hubbard” (who was the daughter of Civil War Col. John and Leonora Hunt). The line beneath promises “gone but not forgotten.”

Therein lies a love story. “J.O.,” as he was referred to locally, was probably the richest man in Vernon; Ellen Morris Hunt Hubbard was probably the most beautiful. It was said that J.O. had a full-length portrait painted, showing her in a purple velvet gown.

His find home with a gazebo on the side lawn still stands, almost opposite the former Schoolhouse Grocery. The home is currently being renovated.

J.O. raised and sold fancy fowl, many leghorn breeds of different colors, some with tufted heads or feathery “pantaloons” on their legs. The biggest attraction was several peacocks strolling the lawns.

Let your imagination put you into the Vernon of J.O.’s day.

Railroad trains, with their steam locomotives belching smoke, passed by several times a day and at night. The “highways” were dirt and lined with trees. Lighting was by kerosene lamps and lanters. In most homes, the toilet was an outhouse and baths were taken in a tub in the kitchen, or in the bedroom using the “chamber set” — a pitcher and bowl — on a wash stand.

The Frosts and the Whitheds enjoyed more “modern” conveniences. However, it was the Frost kitchen that provided the operating table for Mrs. Frost when a number of toes had to be removed. It left her with a limp. J.O.’s affair was the final blow to her dignity.

He was scorned by the Whithed family, but that did not deter J.O. and his enterprises. One was Central Park, a name that still appears on many maps. Evidence of Central Park existed until a year ago.

What did the resolute J.O. do next? It involved music, food, exercise and entertainment. Can you guess?

(Click here for Part I. Tune in soon for the next installment!)