Women - Brattleboro Historical Society

Clara Antonetti, Radio and Welcome Center

In 1950 Brattleboro’s first broadcasting station, WTSA, began. The station appeared at frequency 1,450 kilocycles on your radio dial, (AM 1450). It went on the air April 20th and was the eighth radio station established in Vermont. The 170-foot radio tower was built on a swampy site just north of the Milk Plant on Putney Road and a 20 X 30-foot building housing the transmitting apparatus and broadcasting studio was built up the hill from the tower. A year later, 34-year-old Clara Antonetti began working at the station. She did Christmas programming, played the piano and told children’s stories. She was the only female employee at the time and also handled a lot of the day-to-day office work of the business. Clara had grown up in Barre, Vermont and came to Brattleboro to attend the local branch of Bay Path Institute. She graduated from the stenographic department in 1939 and took a job at Holstein. […]

Carrie Hamilton, Crystal Ice and Women’s Suffrage (1890’s -1930’s)

On August 18, 1920 the Tennessee state government voted in favor of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. This caused the ratification of the amendment and meant that female citizens could now vote in U.S. and state elections. The leader of the local chapter of the Women’s Suffrage Association was Carrie L. Hamilton. She was a very active community member involved in much of the social life of the town. Mrs. Hamilton was a leader of the local Eastern Star organization, often serving in state-wide office. She also belonged to the Grange, Brattleboro’s Woman’s Club and the Daughters of the American Revolution. Carrie Hamilton moved to town in 1894 with her husband, Dr. Fremont Hamilton, and her two year old son. They purchased the former Carpenter Mansion on the point of land between Linden Street and Putney Road. A few years earlier the Carpenter’s had donated the southernmost section of their property to the […]

Audrey Hilley, Wanted By The FBI (1983)

On January 12, 1983 an employee of Putney Road’s Book Press was found to be a fugitive wanted by the FBI for murder. 49 year old Teri Martin, an executive secretary, had been working at the Book Press for two months. She lived just north of Keene, NH and her Book Press supervisors thought she was a very good employee. Teri had been placed at the Book Press by the Cheshire Employment Agency and was described by the placement agent as, “very beautiful, a southern drawl type person, very congenial, very impressive.” An employee of the Book Press was quoted as saying she was “really nice, or she seemed to be. She was attractive; a small blonde with a southern accent.” It turns out Teri Martin was not her real name. Her real name was Audrey Hilley and she had been on the run from authorities for over three years. She was an escaped murder […]

Antoinette Sherri (1920’s-1970’s)

In the summer of 2021 the stone staircase at the ruins of Madame Sherri’s “Castle” on the east side of Mount Wantastiquet partially collapsed. Antoinette Sherri, a Paris-born music hall singer, came to America in 1911. With her husband she opened a theatrical costume shop in New York City. For a time they were quite successful. Their clients included the Ziegfeld Follies and Ringling Circus. Charles LeMaire was a young man who worked in the “Andre-Sherri”costume shop. LeMaire’s first costuming job was with the Sherri’s and he would later become quite famous. In 1943 he was appointed the head of wardrobe and costuming for the 20th Century Fox film studio. LeMaire would win three Academy Awards and oversee the costuming of more than 250 Hollywood films. In the 1920’s Antoinette’s husband, Andre, was reportedly an alcoholic who became very ill from drinking badly made Prohibition gin. Andre was unable to work and Charles […]

Annie Grout and the AMA (Civil War and Reconstruction)

On October 8, 1846 Lewis Grout was ordained a Congregational minister. On the same day he married Lydia Bates in Springfield, Vermont and the newly married couple traveled to Boston that evening. Two days later they boarded a ship bound for South Africa. Lewis was 31 years old and Lydia was 28. The two missionaries were traveling to Port Natal on the southeastern tip of the African continent. Their goal was to live with the native people and introduce Christianity to the region. The British had been colonizing South Africa for forty years and this missionary effort was part of their campaign. They were looking for marketable resources, a trade route to India, and an opportunity to spread the Christian religion. Two months of sailing brought the Grouts to Cape Town, South Africa. A six week layover in Cape Town acclimated the New England pair to the climate and culture of a different part of […]

Annals and Mary Cabot- (1921-1922)

The “Annals of Brattleboro” was printed by the local company, E. L. Hildreth and Company. The Vermont Phoenix said the publication was “by far, the most important history of Brattleboro ever published”. The “Annals of Brattleboro” is a two volume-1100 page-set of books that encompasses Brattleboro’s history through the 1800’s. The first volume was published in late 1921 and the second volume came out in early 1922. In 1922 H.S. Wardner, a reviewer of the “Annals” wrote, “In this handsome two-volume publication from the press of E.L. Hildreth & Company of Brattleboro, profusely enriched with illustrations, Miss Mary R. Cabot has revealed much of the pleasanter and gentler side of Vermont life from the time of Fort Dummer to near the close of the nineteenth century.” “Of peculiar interest is the fact that Brattleboro is the oldest of Vermont towns in point of settlement. At and around the fort or block-house called Fort Dummer, within […]

Annabelle Pike and the Brooks Library (1900’s)

It was in 1882 the Brattleboro Public Library opened on Main Street. The library was located in a room in the Town Hall and was open three days a week for 8 hours a day. A large selection of books, and the knowledge found in their pages, was now available to just about everyone. There had been a privately operated and funded library in town since 1821. This was actually a reading club that was only open to those who could afford membership. The idea of a public library was a clear shift in the thinking of town leaders. Since 1842 Brattleboro readers have been privileged to borrow books: first, from its early Brattleboro Library Association and 40 years later, when the shareholders offered the books to the town, from the Brattleboro Free Library, which moved in 1887 from its quarters in the lower Town Hall to the George J. Brooks Library. In […]

Abby Estey Fuller and the Civil War Years (1842-1865)

Abby Estey was born in 1842, the first child of Jacob and Desdemona Estey. Jacob Estey was the founder of the Estey Organ Company. Miss Estey attended Brattleboro schools, including the Glenwood Seminary in West Brattleboro. The Estey’s lived on the east side of Canal Street. In 1865 Abby married a machinist and mechanical engineer with the Estey Organ Company, Levi Fuller. Fuller would go on to become Vice President of the Estey Organ Company and, in 1896, Governor of Vermont. In 1928 a compilation of Abby (Estey) Fuller’s addresses given to the Brattleboro Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution were published. The following text comes from her written recollections of Brattleboro in the Civil War years. “Brattleboro, at the beginning of the war, had business interests in the South. Ira Miller’s carriages and wagons were sold to Southern planters on account of their thorough workmanship and durability. Our Water Cures were patronized […]