Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1860-09-28

burned, there were destroyed by fire, the
old Hall building, the kimball building,
Durts brick store, tie Bellows Falls Stage
House, and al The out buildings including
the new stabls Of Charles Town, the Bax'
fer store, the Russell store and the dwelling
house OF John Sawtelle. This was the most
destructive fire which had ever been wit
messed here, destroying property estimated
nj thirty.five thousand dollars, and giving 4
blow to the prosperity Of the village which
time alone can overcome. From the village
square You mount TO another plain sixty or
seventy feet higber--a plain of broader
extent, over which the waters of the Con-
nccticut, beyoud all question once flowed,
and which they gradually generated by the
deposits of earthly materials brought down
from higher lands, but at period some
fifteen or twenty thousand of years prior to
their formation Of the platform below. On
this plain are the majority ofthe dwelling
houses of the Inhabitants the churches and
the school houses.
BelZo,rs Falls Village has changed very
materially since the creation Of railways
Some of our readers may perhaps remem-
Der the old day of stages; they may even
recollect the clumsy, wagon-kke coach and
the six and eight horse teams Of ancient
date. We sometimes see che of these old,
weather-beaten, diapidated machines stand
ing beside some old hotel past all use, but
having history dating back beyond the
time Of railroads and steam whistles. This
ancient coach was once great institution ;
| its motonless wheels have witnessed a COM
plete revolution in methods of locomotion
since they first revolved upon the old stage
road, True is il we. yet see limitations Of
these heavy vehicles upon some ofthe roads
/ leading 10 the depots, and when we see them
we are sometimes, in Imagination, carried
by the old coach back to days of boyhood,
over the hills and through the pleasant val
/
hardly dreamed Of, especially in the noun
tainoGs regions of Vermont, The dusty
read, the foaming team. the driver, whom
every body knew, the vermillion coaches,
the cracking whip and the rafting wheels,
all these are remembered as things Of the
past. The older Inhabitants will tel you
] when the stage-coaeh came to Bellows Falls
but once week, and when its arrival was
hailed by the good people of Rockingham
as it came lutnbering along the Kings high
way, as a marvellous event. The coach oil
that day had wooden springs, and often no
springs at all. II had no side door for the
admittance of passengers-for in those days
such door would have been accounted a
needless luxury; you entered by climbing
over the front part, and passing back as in
to baggage wagon. In Geing ibis you
must pass over the mails, band boxes and
bundles Of all sorts, and come out in the
same manner. People who travelled in
those days for pleasure, generally used their
own carriages.
Around Bellows Falls is an interesting
locality of minerals. The rocks are prin.
cipaly gneiss. There are also the follow
ing rsre minerals, viz tremolite prehnite,
radiated ia small neduies ola ereenish white
color; fibralite, abundant in granite fiuate
4 of lime few rods below the bridge, in gne.
4 ISIS, and also, one mile northwest from the
falls is quartz, chrystalized, massive and Of
a green color; cyanite, or sappare green
! carbonate of copper in small quantities
maele and indicolite. Besides these, there
are in the township aluminous and argila-
ccous slate, the latter of which is used fol
building and grave-stones chlorite; horn.
blende limpid and radated quartz; bitter
spar; jasper; schorl; garnets; zoisite
augite and sulphuret of iron.