stories & articles

WRITE YOUR STORY

We welcome your personal Bridgewater stories and tales, to be included in our archive with the hopes of future publication. These may include individual stories passed down from family, friends and past generations or stories of you and your memories of Bridgewater. Whenever possible please include photographs. Also include your name and contact information.

Submit your story by:

  1. Email to: [email protected]
  2. Mail to:
    Bridgewater Historical Society
    PO Box 98
    Bridgewater, Vermont 05034

To read some of our stories click the links below:

My Uncle Royal Houghton

My Uncle Royal Houghton

By Walter Houghton A person who was my hero and I always looked up to was my Uncle Royal. When the war ended the most memorable thing for me was going to White River Junction with my grandparents to meet his train. I still remember that old Boston & Maine...

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Marshmallow Can

Marshmallow Can

By Karole A. Thompson Messier My mother, Ruhie Carpenter Thompson sold the Thompson Tavern (now Doyle Apartments) to Percy Solger. At the request of Mr. Robert Sharpe, my mother went to manage the Bridgewater Drug Store in the early 1940s where she remained for nine...

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Military Funeral

Military Funeral

World War II Homecoming 1946 By Royal Houghton After World War II in 1946, Bridgewater’s  Geno-Roberson American Legion post was asked to do a military funeral for a boy killed in the war in Europe. He came from Plymouth VT. ( I can't remember the soldiers name)...

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Dynamite Cave

Dynamite Cave

By Charles Astbury  This story happened in the late 1940s. I’m some ten years old, born on a Bridgewater, side hill, one horse farm which could no longer support a family. My father worked on a nearby operating dairy farm and also worked our smaller farm to feed...

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Things to do in Bridgewater

Things to do in Bridgewater

By Walton E. Houghton The Union Hall on the upper end of the village was the entertainment center for the town. In the early days there was an old movie projector up stairs and movies were shown there. Gramp stored it in his barn for years. The last time I saw it, was...

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Church

Church

By Walter E. Houghton   From my earliest memories until I left town for the Air Force, Bridgewater Congregational Church was always an integral part of my life. There is a photo of the church being painted around 1946 and the little guy dressed in a sailor suit is me!...

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Memories of Bridgewater, Vermont

Memories of Bridgewater, Vermont

By Karole A. Thompson Messier Years ago, the logging industry was an important industry to the Bridgewater community. Although I was much too young to know the details, I can recall some of the stories related to the loggers and the camps. At one time, there were...

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Sugarhouse on the Hill

Sugarhouse on the Hill

By Judith Stearns When our family bought the Thomas Lamb/Ed Heselton House on the top of Bridgewater Hill in 1972 we got busy very quickly restoring it board by board.  Putting in electricity, water system and furnace, replacing part of the cellar wall, and creating a...

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The Porch Roof Approach to Trout Fishing

The Porch Roof Approach to Trout Fishing

By Tom Adams One Friday evening in April, about 1965, a dozen or so men in their mid-twenties arrived in Bridgewater in search of non-resident fishing licenses. They were a good part of a group known as the Jolly Boys, a loose club formed of male members of the...

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Ruth Needham and CCC Dog

Ruth Needham and CCC Dog

By Royal Houghton Nov 4, 2013  I read on your Bridgewater Historical Society about the up coming program on the CCC. I might have something of interest to add involving Ruth Houghton Needham. One of the camp’s top officers lived in Bridgewater Corners by the name...

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