THE STRANGE ODYSSEY OF THE SOLDIERS’ AND SAILORS’ MEMORIAL MONUMENT, HONORING THOSE WHO SERVED IN THE GREAT WAR FROM SOUTH BARRE AND BARRE PLAINS.
This was the first Barre monument to honor those who served in World War I. It was dedicated in 1920, nine years before the Doughboy Monument in North Park was dedicated.
The South Barre monument has quite a story tTHE STRANGE ODYSSEY OF THE SOLDIERS’ AND SAILORS’ MEMORIAL MONUMENT, HONORING THOSE WHO SERVED IN THE GREAT WAR FROM SOUTH BARRE AND BARRE PLAINS.
This was the first Barre monument to honor those who served in World War I. It was dedicated in 1920, nine years before the Doughboy Monument in North Park was dedicated.
The South Barre monument has quite a story to tell. Until the time of World War II, the First World War was called The World War or The Great War. Or the War to end all wars which, sadly, it was not.
In the very early 20th century, Barre underwent some dramatic changes that affected the history of the Great War in this town.
Francis Willey, of Bradford, England, built his Barre Wool Combing Co. Ltd. mill in South Barre in 1903.
He later became 1st Baron Barnby. His company was the largest raw wool dealing company in the world.
The location in Barre was called Crossleyville, which had water power but not much else. It was not a residential village.
Francis Willey built his Barre Wool Combing Co. Ltd. mill on the Ware River in Crossleyville, which we now call South Barre.
To run the wool combing business, Sir Francis Willey had a pressing need for experienced wool sorters, also called wool classifiers.
This is an occupation that is learned over years of apprenticeship and experience, so he could not hire inexperienced local workers and train them.
He turned to his own home city of Bradford, England, to hire the most experienced wool sorters.
This explains why there was a large English community living in South Barre at the time World War I broke out.
Immigrants also arrived from Italy, Russia (which then included Lithuania and parts of Poland), and other countries.
The mill in South Barre had a huge impact on Barre’s population. The population of Barre in the last United States census (1910) before WWI was 2,957. This was a 43% increase over the previous United States census (1900), when it was 2,059.
This growth was mostly due to the influx of British and Europeans to work in the mill, and the children that were born to them after arrival. Almost one-third of Barre’s population, 940, was foreign-born in 1910. One-sixth, 472, were born in countries that were at that time part of the British Empire. This includes all of Ireland, which was also still in the Empire. Another 259 persons, or 8.8%, listed their birthplace as Italy.
Francis Willey transformed Crossleyville into the thriving community of South Barre. He built three separate housing developments for the workers.
Lining Vernon Avenue, which he named for his son, were the larger homes of the mill managers. Willey built stores, and hotels for transients and visitors.
The Hotel Blythe, named for his home in Nottinghamshire, England, is repurposed today as rental housing units. He built a theater and a recreational area at Powder Mill on the Ware River.
He donated the former Episcopal Church and the land on which St. Thomas-a-Becket Roman Catholic Church sits. Willey had the road now known as South Barre Road constructed to more directly connect South Barre and Barre.
In 1911, the town built a new four-room schoolhouse in South Barre at a cost of $20,000, or $532,000 in 2017 values.
Another person who shaped Barre’s history in World War I is surprisingly different from Francis Willey.
She was a petite, blond, 19-year-old English native named Ida Exley who had come with her family to work in the South Barre Woolen Mill.
Her father was a wool sorter. The young woman was engaged to Harry Taylor, an Englishman who had worked at the South Barre mill for some time and then had returned to England.
Over the winter, Ida collected her trousseau and booked second class passage on the English ocean liner, “Lusitania.”
It was April 1915 and England had been at war for months, although America maintained its neutrality. The Germans were conducting unrestrained submarine warfare.
The Germans warned that ships that entered the war zone around England, would be subject to torpedoes, even if they carried neutral passengers.
Ida’s family did not want her to go to England on the “Lusitania,” but Ida left New York on May 1.
On May 7, 1915, she lost her life when the “Lusitania” was hit by a German torpedo not far from its destination of Liverpool. Ida’s remains and her trousseau were never found.
The loss of this teenager who had adopted South Barre as her home had a profound effect on the men of South Barre and Barre Plains.
Although 128 American citizens were among the 1,201 persons who were killed, America maintained its neutrality.
The loss of Ida Exley spurred South Barre’s British nationals to seek revenge by enlisting in the British and Canadian armed forces before America’s entry into the war.
Their names figure prominently on the WWI monuments on Barre Common and in South Barre, and one, Frederick Addy, gave his life.
Later, when the United States entered the war, many more men fought in the American armed forces, including immigrants from Italy, Russia and other countries.
Other men from South Barre and Barre plains joined up, some with the British forces, some with American.
Some were native born Americans, but as you read the names on the monuments, it is clear that many were immigrants.
After the men of South Barre and Barre Pains returned home, the people of the villages of Barre Plains and South Barre decided to erect a soldiers’ and sailors’ memorial monument in honor of those who served.
It was placed in Monument Square, in front of the Hotel Blythe, and between Florence Hall and the Nornay Mill (which has now been razed and replaced by Nornay Park).
The people of South Barre and Barre Plains raised the $4,000 to purchase and erect the monument. In 2017 dollars, that value would be $48,900.
Things moved quickly. The large town-wide “Welcome Home Day” festivities to celebrate the return of the town’s fighting men were held on September 27, 1919, with an estimated attendance of 5,000.
The dedication of the South Barre soldiers’ and sailors’ monument was planned for Saturday, December 6, 1919, but a tragedy postponed the dedication for another eleven months. The schedule was tight.
The Barre Wool sent a truck with two men from Pawtucket, Rhode Island to pick up the granite monument from Barre, Vermont.
Leaving on Monday night, they were instructed to drive night and day until the monument was in South Barre, Massachusetts.
On Wednesday, December 3, the truck, loaded with the five-ton granite block, attempted to cross an old wooden covered bridge over the First Branch White River in South Royalton, Vermont.
The massive granite block proved too much for the bridge. The front end of the truck had just reached the far end of the bridge when the heavily-loaded back end broke through the wooden deck and fell into the river.
The truck turned completely over backward and sank upside down into five feet of water.
He truck’s driver, Joseph Bouchard, age 25 of Woonsocket, was pinned under the steering wheel and was killed instantly. He left a wife and four children.
His helper, Frank Guilbeault, was seriously injured. The monument was salvaged from the river and sent back to Barre, Vermont for repair of the damages.
Eleven months passed before the dedication could be rearranged. Lieut.-Colonel F. Vernon Willey, son of Francis Willey, happened to be in South Barre while on six weeks’ furlough from the coalition government of Premier Lloyd George, so the celebration was put together on short notice.
Exercises were held at 2:00 P.M. on October 23, 1920. The turnout was huge, estimated at 5,000 people.
A parade of former servicemen marched through South Barre. The parade was led by Charles Colleta and the South Barre Band. Then the monument was unveiled by Lieut.-Colonel F.
Vernon Willey. His name is listed on the Honor Roll for his distinguished service with the Notts Yeomanry (Sherwood Rangers) in Egypt and Gallipoli. The dedication address was delivered by Massachusetts ex-Attorney General, Herbert Parker of Lancaster.
Children of the public schools of Barre Plains and South Barre sang “Star Spangled Banner” before the unveiling and “America” once the dedication was complete.
Children were entertained with “moving pictures.” The servicemen of South Barre and Barre Plains were guests of honor at a banquet held in Florence Hall.
The festivities continued long into the night as Casino Orchestra of Worcester played a concert at Florence Hall.
The monument is a block of Vermont granite, seven feet tall, with a statue on top. Drinking fountains were located on either side, but have been missing for years.
The side facing the old Hotel Blythe has this inscription: “World War, 1914 – 1919 (sic). This fountain is dedicated to those who left their daily tasks among us to fight and die if need be that freedom may live.”
On the front, a bronze plaque cast by T. F. McGann & Sons, Boston, lists the 94 men from South Barre and Barre Plains who served in World War I, with stars next to six men who died in service:
Frederick Addy, Edwin Bowen, Felice Cicirelli, Salvatore Dannolfi, Michael Rosselli, and Antonio Zanchi (more commonly spelled Zanghi). One man who should have a star but does not is Joseph Wispalis, a Lithuanian immigrant.
The South Barre Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Memorial Monument reminds us of the group of young British citizens who fought for Great Britain long before the United States entered WWI, of a petite teenager on the Lusitania, whose tragic death spurred these young men to enlist, of the ethnic diversity of South Barre, and of the dramatic and sad loss of the teamster when the monument sank into the First Branch White River.
This was a grass roots monument, funded by the residents of South Barre and Barre Plains.
Apparently no Town funds were used to create or erect it, and no Town officials are listed as having participated in the dedication.
The servicemen of South Barre and Barre Plains are honored on two monuments, and the one in South Barre was erected first.o tell. Until the time of World War II, the First World War was called The World War or The Great War. Or the War to end all wars which, sadly, it was not.
In the very early 20th century, Barre underwent some dramatic changes that affected the history of the Great War in this town.
Francis Willey, of Bradford, England, built his Barre Wool Combing Co. Ltd. mill in South Barre in 1903.
He later became 1st Baron Barnby. His company was the largest raw wool dealing company in the world.
The location in Barre was called Crossleyville, which had water power but not much else. It was not a residential village.
Francis Willey built his Barre Wool Combing Co. Ltd. mill on the Ware River in Crossleyville, which we now call South Barre.
To run the wool combing business, Sir Francis Willey had a pressing need for experienced wool sorters, also called wool classifiers.
This is an occupation that is learned over years of apprenticeship and experience, so he could not hire inexperienced local workers and train them.
He turned to his own home city of Bradford, England, to hire the most experienced wool sorters.
This explains why there was a large English community living in South Barre at the time World War I broke out.
Immigrants also arrived from Italy, Russia (which then included Lithuania and parts of Poland), and other countries.
The mill in South Barre had a huge impact on Barre’s population. The population of Barre in the last United States census (1910) before WWI was 2,957. This was a 43% increase over the previous United States census (1900), when it was 2,059.
This growth was mostly due to the influx of British and Europeans to work in the mill, and the children that were born to them after arrival. Almost one-third of Barre’s population, 940, was foreign-born in 1910. One-sixth, 472, were born in countries that were at that time part of the British Empire. This includes all of Ireland, which was also still in the Empire. Another 259 persons, or 8.8%, listed their birthplace as Italy.
Francis Willey transformed Crossleyville into the thriving community of South Barre. He built three separate housing developments for the workers.
Lining Vernon Avenue, which he named for his son, were the larger homes of the mill managers. Willey built stores, and hotels for transients and visitors.
The Hotel Blythe, named for his home in Nottinghamshire, England, is repurposed today as rental housing units. He built a theater and a recreational area at Powder Mill on the Ware River.
He donated the former Episcopal Church and the land on which St. Thomas-a-Becket Roman Catholic Church sits. Willey had the road now known as South Barre Road constructed to more directly connect South Barre and Barre.
In 1911, the town built a new four-room schoolhouse in South Barre at a cost of $20,000, or $532,000 in 2017 values.
Another person who shaped Barre’s history in World War I is surprisingly different from Francis Willey.
She was a petite, blond, 19-year-old English native named Ida Exley who had come with her family to work in the South Barre Woolen Mill.
Her father was a wool sorter. The young woman was engaged to Harry Taylor, an Englishman who had worked at the South Barre mill for some time and then had returned to England.
Over the winter, Ida collected her trousseau and booked second class passage on the English ocean liner, “Lusitania.”
It was April 1915 and England had been at war for months, although America maintained its neutrality. The Germans were conducting unrestrained submarine warfare.
The Germans warned that ships that entered the war zone around England, would be subject to torpedoes, even if they carried neutral passengers.
Ida’s family did not want her to go to England on the “Lusitania,” but Ida left New York on May 1.
On May 7, 1915, she lost her life when the “Lusitania” was hit by a German torpedo not far from its destination of Liverpool. Ida’s remains and her trousseau were never found.
The loss of this teenager who had adopted South Barre as her home had a profound effect on the men of South Barre and Barre Plains.
Although 128 American citizens were among the 1,201 persons who were killed, America maintained its neutrality.
The loss of Ida Exley spurred South Barre’s British nationals to seek revenge by enlisting in the British and Canadian armed forces before America’s entry into the war.
Their names figure prominently on the WWI monuments on Barre Common and in South Barre, and one, Frederick Addy, gave his life.
Later, when the United States entered the war, many more men fought in the American armed forces, including immigrants from Italy, Russia and other countries.
Other men from South Barre and Barre plains joined up, some with the British forces, some with American.
Some were native born Americans, but as you read the names on the monuments, it is clear that many were immigrants.
After the men of South Barre and Barre Pains returned home, the people of the villages of Barre Plains and South Barre decided to erect a soldiers’ and sailors’ memorial monument in honor of those who served.
It was placed in Monument Square, in front of the Hotel Blythe, and between Florence Hall and the Nornay Mill (which has now been razed and replaced by Nornay Park).
The people of South Barre and Barre Plains raised the $4,000 to purchase and erect the monument. In 2017 dollars, that value would be $48,900.
Things moved quickly. The large town-wide “Welcome Home Day” festivities to celebrate the return of the town’s fighting men were held on September 27, 1919, with an estimated attendance of 5,000.
The dedication of the South Barre soldiers’ and sailors’ monument was planned for Saturday, December 6, 1919, but a tragedy postponed the dedication for another eleven months. The schedule was tight.
The Barre Wool sent a truck with two men from Pawtucket, Rhode Island to pick up the granite monument from Barre, Vermont.
Leaving on Monday night, they were instructed to drive night and day until the monument was in South Barre, Massachusetts.
On Wednesday, December 3, the truck, loaded with the five-ton granite block, attempted to cross an old wooden covered bridge over the First Branch White River in South Royalton, Vermont.
The massive granite block proved too much for the bridge. The front end of the truck had just reached the far end of the bridge when the heavily-loaded back end broke through the wooden deck and fell into the river.
The truck turned completely over backward and sank upside down into five feet of water.
He truck’s driver, Joseph Bouchard, age 25 of Woonsocket, was pinned under the steering wheel and was killed instantly. He left a wife and four children.
His helper, Frank Guilbeault, was seriously injured. The monument was salvaged from the river and sent back to Barre, Vermont for repair of the damages.
Eleven months passed before the dedication could be rearranged. Lieut.-Colonel F. Vernon Willey, son of Francis Willey, happened to be in South Barre while on six weeks’ furlough from the coalition government of Premier Lloyd George, so the celebration was put together on short notice.
Exercises were held at 2:00 P.M. on October 23, 1920. The turnout was huge, estimated at 5,000 people.
A parade of former servicemen marched through South Barre. The parade was led by Charles Colleta and the South Barre Band. Then the monument was unveiled by Lieut.-Colonel F.
Vernon Willey. His name is listed on the Honor Roll for his distinguished service with the Notts Yeomanry (Sherwood Rangers) in Egypt and Gallipoli. The dedication address was delivered by Massachusetts ex-Attorney General, Herbert Parker of Lancaster.
Children of the public schools of Barre Plains and South Barre sang “Star Spangled Banner” before the unveiling and “America” once the dedication was complete.
Children were entertained with “moving pictures.” The servicemen of South Barre and Barre Plains were guests of honor at a banquet held in Florence Hall.
The festivities continued long into the night as Casino Orchestra of Worcester played a concert at Florence Hall.
The monument is a block of Vermont granite, seven feet tall, with a statue on top. Drinking fountains were located on either side, but have been missing for years.
The side facing the old Hotel Blythe has this inscription: “World War, 1914 – 1919 (sic). This fountain is dedicated to those who left their daily tasks among us to fight and die if need be that freedom may live.”
On the front, a bronze plaque cast by T. F. McGann & Sons, Boston, lists the 94 men from South Barre and Barre Plains who served in World War I, with stars next to six men who died in service:
Frederick Addy, Edwin Bowen, Felice Cicirelli, Salvatore Dannolfi, Michael Rosselli, and Antonio Zanchi (more commonly spelled Zanghi). One man who should have a star but does not is Joseph Wispalis, a Lithuanian immigrant.
The South Barre Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Memorial Monument reminds us of the group of young British citizens who fought for Great Britain long before the United States entered WWI, of a petite teenager on the Lusitania, whose tragic death spurred these young men to enlist, of the ethnic diversity of South Barre, and of the dramatic and sad loss of the teamster when the monument sank into the First Branch White River.
This was a grass roots monument, funded by the residents of South Barre and Barre Plains.
Apparently no Town funds were used to create or erect it, and no Town officials are listed as having participated in the dedication.
The servicemen of South Barre and Barre Plains are honored on two monuments, and the one in South Barre was erected first.
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