The Twenty-Five Club
Memories of Irvin Maranville
In February 2000, Bill Seward brought to my home, at 113 Shell Drive (81st St.), Holmes Beach, Florida, the Record Book of the "25 Club of the East Wallingford Baptist Church", of East Wallingford, Vermont. Bill had gotten it from Gordon Parker of Virginia. I read through it, and gave it back to Bill, for Bill to return it to Gordon. I am grateful to them both for their efforts in making this historical record book available to me. I made some notes while I had it, and will now write some recollections.
I noted that I would have been eleven years old on June 23rd, 1940, when I was Baptized and Received into Fellowship at the East Wallingford Baptist Church, along with twenty-one other young people. Three others joined by letter, making a total of twenty-five young people joining at one time. This is a big thing for a church the size of the East Wallingford Baptist Church, situated in a village the size of East Wallingford, Vermont.
I am guessing that this large group was largely due to the efforts of the Pastor of that time, the Rev. Fred Mac Arthur. He was pastor of both the East Wallingford and Ludlow Churches. I remember him as being a very energetic person, a shaker and a mover. He had a once a week radio program on a Rutland station. He also had a singing group consisting of ladies in period costumes who called themselves "The Olde Fashioned Githering". He was a fire and brimstone preacher who was ambitious and given to making rash statements. I remember one time when he had said from the pulpit that if the Church was ever completely filled for a service that he would stand on the lectern and yell "Hallelujah II The Church ~ filled one Sunday and he did just that. It made a lasting impression on me.
I had always remembered that I was about fourteen or fifteen years old when I was Baptized, and was surprised to find that I was, in fact, only eleven in 1940 when this occurred.
Twenty-five people, all coming into a small church like the East Wallingford Baptist Church at the same time was remarkable. It was remarkable enough so that a Club was created, named, very appropriately, the Twenty-five Club. In reading through the minutes, I noted that the first meeting of the Twenty-five Club was held on May 2nd, 1941, eleven months after the Baptismal Service. The last recorded meeting was on August 25th, 1952, so the 25 Club lasted for over eleven years.
The frequencies of the meetings were not always constant and there were some times when there were large gaps in its functioning. The attendance at the meetings varied. There was at least one meeting where there were not enough people present to conduct business, and there were a number of special occasion meetings when there were in excess of twenty present, but for the most part there were usually about fifteen in attendance.
Even though the frequency and attendance varied I think that it was remarkable that this Club lasted for eleven years especially when you consider that this period of time contained the last years of the depression and the years of World War 11 (1941-1945). It is also worth noting that, with the exception of Nancy and Maria Jennings, there was no one at the last meeting who had been at the first. Over the eleven years four ministers and an uncounted number of boys and girls in their formative years had been members of this club.
Maria and Nancy Jennings lived on what is now VT Route 140 but which for many years was Vermont 103A (or the Wallingford Gulf Road). They lived just at the height of the land as the road ran from East Wallingford to Wallingford. Their house was the next house East of the house my parents had moved to in 1937 (at the foot of the road leading up to the Maurice Hawkins farm). For the years of the 25 Club (and well beyond) Nancy and Maria lived all alone in a big house up on a hill a little ways up from the Gulf Road. To a nine-year-old boy who had just moved down off of Sugar Hill the Jennings sisters, their house, and their life style were all very impressive. Their house was much bigger and cleaner than any of the limited number of houses that I had been inside, in my limited view of the world. The house had a fireplace (which was sometimes lighted for 25 Club meetings). It also had a library from which I was allowed to borrow books. I remember borrowing the Red Book Of Fairy Tales, the Blue Book of Fairy Tales, Heidi, Black Beauty, Robinson Caruso, The Swiss Family Robinson, the Tom Swift books, Stories of the Bible, and many others.
As I write this, I realize that I am indebted to them for the first expansion of my horizon. From the books that I borrowed from the Jennings library I gained the knowledge that there was a world beyond my limited environment. The Jennings house had tennis courts, a croquet lawn, (1 played croquet on that), an orchard, and a garage attached to the house. The garage could hold three cars (remember, this was in 1937). There was an enormous hen house, a really big cow barn down by the road (my dad used the barn for hay and implement storage). There was also a tenement house where Frank Dubeau, their full time, live in, handy man, lived with his family.
Many years later, (in 1952) this house where Frank Dubeau had lived for many years became the first house that my wife and I lived in after our marriage. There was also a small house (and attached barn) located on the South side of the main road and the East side of the Cross Roads Hill road that was used for the Sugar Hill Sunday School (more about that later). This was always called "The White House".
I barely remember Mr. or Mrs. Jennings. I vaguely remember that they had a big Packard touring car that had three taillights in a row. The story that I was told was that Mr. Jennings had been a rich man (three times) and had lost it all twice. He was then said to have tied up his last fortune in a way that allowed Nancy and Maria to have a place to live for their entire life, and an income of some sort. They were said to have come from Bennington, and were descendants of the Robinsons, one of Bennington's first families. I never heard talk of any relatives in Bennington, but I understood they had retained their membership in the Congregational Church at Bennington even though they gave a lifetime of devoted service to the East Wallingford Baptist Church. They even established a Sunday School of their own in the "White House" on their property.
Maria and Nancy had two sisters. Their sister Annette went to New York City where I believe that she had a well-placed job at Macys. She was also an accomplished concert violinist. Their other sister, Mae, married Cecil Patch and moved to Walpole, New Hampshire, where Cecil had a large farm. Cecil was the son of Bert Patch, the owner of the farm on Bump Hill where my parents were living at the time I was born. Cecil and Mae had two children, Peggy and Billy. Peggy was about my age. Billy was younger Peggy used to come from Walpole, NH to visit her Aunt Nancy and Aunt Maria, and she sometimes brought girl friends with her. I have made literally hundreds of bicycle trips past the Jennings just to see if Peggy was visiting.
If she was visiting her Aunts, I would override my inborn Sugar Hill shyness and play croquet, (if I was asked.) Peggy was present at a lot of East Wallingford Baptist and Sugar Hill Sunday School happenings, but was not at very many Twenty Five Club meetings as they were held on week nights when she would have been in Walpole getting ready for school the next morning. I have always thought that Peggy Patch, and her girl friends, and Barbara Eldred and her girl friends upgraded the social climate of the culture of the East Wallingford youth. I had (mostly undeclared) feelings for Peggy up until the time that I left for the Navy at seventeen. I am sure that she saw me in a much different light than I saw her, but she was very much a part of my 25 Club years.
From its very beginning to the very end Nancy and Maria were the constant of the 25 Club. I am sure that they were very often the underwriters of operating expenses and furnishers of refreshments. I don't remember them as ever being pushy or over directive. I knew nothing then of leadership qualities, but I now know that they furnished the most valuable kind of leadership. They let us direct ourselves. Their presence gave respectability to a group of very lively adolescents. I only remember a very few times when they called a halt or restricted us in any discernible ways but I am sure that they would have done so had it ever became necessary.
In reading through the minutes, I got a sense of the life of the Church, the community, the nation, and the world. Members of the Club left and came back, went into the Service, married or moved away. These incidental mentions in the minutes reflected the greater movements of the world. The minutes mostly documented who attended the meetings (both members and visitors) and what we did at the meetings. Mostly it seems that we sang hymns and had refreshments. The refreshments were very basic by today's standards but I remember them as being very special. Worthy of mention was watermelon, crackers and pop, apples; sometimes it was just bread and milk.
The Club made the hymnal racks for the backs of the pews. We raised the money for new electric lights in the main Church. It took nearly two years of fund raising activity to get the money, but at the meeting of June 23, 1942, we voted to buy the silver-cupped lights for $6.90 each. We had popcorn sales, games and showed silent movies to raise the money. We also bought pew cushions.
I found the description of an impressive dedication service held on December 23.
There was a candlelight procession around the Church ending with the candles being extinguished and the Church being plunged into total darkness. THEN the new lights were turned on. As a footnote, it was noted that the outside temperature was 25 degrees below zero that night.
We had box socials. We made $8.66 on one of them when the girls brought the boxes and the boys bid for them. The next week the boys brought the boxes and the girls bid on them. This week the auction only brought $2.09. We showed silent movies (no kidding, we really did) and had raffles. We sold popcorn at the movies, which were open to the public. There wasn't much nightlife in East Wallingford during those years except Church, Grange, and an occasional traveling show at the Grange hall.
We spent a lot of our meeting time making plans for these moneymaking activities and a lot of time actually doing them. We also planned and conducted worship services. Sometimes we just helped, but occasionally we did the whole service. We also had a lot of "work days" when we cleaned various parts of the Church and grounds. One of our larger projects was the front lawn of the Church. The minutes of July 22nd, 1941 told of making plans to work on the lawn " if it was not a good hay day". Roland Seward gave 251oads of dirt, and the 25 Club spread it out. I remember helping spread it. Bill Seward tells me that he remembers exactly where the dirt came from.
The minutes of the third meeting in 1943, which was held in February J Albert Maguira noted that it had been 45 degrees below zero that morning. He went on to state "I built the fire at the Church and it was fairly comfortable when everyone got there for the meeting. The attendance that night was nine people.
At the May 1,1944, meeting it was written, "On Friday May 15th we plan to have a special meeting and take in new members. We plan on these;
James Croft
Ramona Jenness
Bill Seward
Mary Garrow
lona Garrow
Bill tells me that he doesn't think that he was ever a member.
The August 14th, 1945 meeting notes begin with "We held our meeting tonight and felt it a great occasion, as peace was declared at seven o-clock, and all the Village joined in celebrating. We rang the Church bell. Though not all of the following remained for Twenty Five Club, those present around the Church door were Ruth and "Chubby" Bixby, May Bixby, Lillian Isabelle, Raymond Patch, Gordon Parker, Barbara Eldred, Phyllis Pelkey, Annice Hawkins, Patricia Croff, Priscilla Jenness, Nancy Dana, and Sara Jane Belcher, George Gage, John Sheehan, Peggy Stewart, Richard Sharon, fuga Olsen, Phyllis Van Guilder, Edgar Hawkins, Irvin Maranville, and Nancy and Maria Jennings.
On March 16,1948 the minutes said "We voted to reorganize the "25 Club" with a new name, by laws etc. The ones present tonight made suggestions along this line to be voted on later. At the June 19th, 1948 meeting the bylaws were read and officers were elected. The minutes of February 8th said " We decided to have a new president every month, Nancy Dana will be president for the first month"
On July 5th, 1949 " We had our annual election of officers. July 16, 1951 elected officers again "Met in the Church for the first time this year". The last minutes recorded in the book were on August 25th, 1952.
These are all of the notes that I made. There were apparently many secretaries over the years, but the handwriting was all very good and quite legible. My guess is that the secretaries were probably all girls. That is how it was done then and they ~have better handwriting than the boys.
I was a regular attendee from about December 1943 until about April 19th, 1946. I worked for my brother, John, from March 1946 until November 1946 when I enlisted in the Navy.
There were a number of different ministers during these years.
Dr. Fred Mac Arthur 1940---1943
Rev. Dexter Emery 1943---1946
Rev. David Evans 1946---1947
Rev. Beach 1947---1948
Rev. Henry Johnson 1948---1952
Rev Claude Berry 1952---
I know anyone taking the time to read this must be known to me, so I send you my Best Wishes. by Irvin Maranville (A. D. 2001)