WHO ARE THE CHARACTERS?

CharactersRedfield Proctor – Favors proposalCharles Clement – Leader of

opposition.Percival Clement – Charles son;

owner of the Rutland HeraldJudge Luke Poland – Leader of

Vermont House of Representatives

Characters Seneca Dorr – Colleague of

Charles Clement on the opposition. Colonel Wheelock Veazey –

College friend of Proctor’s who helped him with the pine tar business.

Captain Adolphus Smedburg – Served under Veazey, unknowingly distributed pine tar.

Characters Walter Dunton – Proctor’s early

law partner after the Civil War. Humphrey Brothers – Early

owners of what became Dorr & Meyers Marble.

John Meyers – Partner with Seneca Dorr who died & started controversy.

Characters Mary Meyers – John’s wife who

enlisted Redfield Proctor to hold off Dorr’s bid to sell the marble company.

Fletcher Proctor – Redfield’s son. Frank Partridge – Childhood

friend of Fletcher & lifelong member of Proctor businesses.

WHAT IS THE MAIN ISSUE DISCUSSED IN THE BOOK?

Main Issue Discussed

Proposal before Vermont House of Representatives to Divide the Town of Rutland into three towns: Rutland, Proctor & West Rutland.

Main Issue Discussed Redfield Proctor leads

management in favor of the proposal.

Charles Clement leads the working class who are opposed to the proposal.

Seneca Dorr is Clement’s supporter.

WHAT ARE THE REASONS NOT TO SPLIT UP RUTLAND PER SENECA DORR?

Don’t Split Rutland The total area is six square miles. Transient population at the mercy

of Vermont Marble Company, a New York corporation.

Vermont Marble Company is controlled by one man, Redfield Proctor.

Don’t Split Rutland When Proctor dies, control of

the company and workers is uncertain.

Don’t Split Rutland Only argument for dividing the

town is too large for its current government and the town hall is inadequate for its population.

Rutland is one of the best governed towns in the state.

Town meetings are always orderly.

Don’t Split Rutland In the last ten years the

town debt has been reduced almost to the grand list.

Why build two new town halls when you can just renovate the one we have now.

Don’t Split Rutland The proposal is nothing more

than a contest between the people on one hand one man, wealth and corporate greed on the other .

Dorr Accusation Governor Proctor already controls

the jobs and wages of his workers and now wants to control their votes as well.

Governor Proctor does not care about the people’s rights or what is good for the town and its citizens, he cares only about the right of money and power.

WHAT ARE THE JOB TITLES THAT REDFIELD PROCTOR HELD DURING HIS LONG CAREER?

Redfield Proctor’s Titles Colonel during the Civil War. Governor of Vermont U.S. Secretary of War U.S. Senator Political Boss Multimillionaire

Redfield Proctor Born 01 June 1831 in

Proctorsville VT to Jabez & Betsey (Parker) Proctor.

Grandfather settled the town near Ludlow.

Graduated Dartmouth 1851. Married Emily Dutten in 1858

Redfield Proctor Attended Albany Law School

& admitted to the bar in 1860 Became law clerk for his

cousin in Boston, but didn’t like practicing law.

Civil War gave him a sense of purpose.

Redfield Proctor Left his law practice when

war started in 1861, returned to Vermont and enlisted in the army.

Received commission as Lieutenant & regimental quartermaster in Third Vermont Volunteers.

Redfield Proctor – Early War Years He enjoyed military service for the

pleasant camaraderie and lifelong bonding he carried with him.

He never was near actual combat.He was a shrewd bargainer and

excellent horse trader which made him a favorite with the senior officers. He was promoted rapidly.

WHAT WAS THE GREAT PINE TAR CAPER?

Civil War Business Deal Proctor put together a

scheme, with partners Colonel Wheelock G. Veazey & Captain Adolphus Smedburg while stationed in Washington DC.

Civil War Business Deal Pine tar was used as

lubricant for wagon wheels. It was expensive in Vermont,

but very cheap in Virginia. They schemed to buy pine

tar in Virginia, in the name of Proctor’s mother’s farm.

Civil War Business Deal Wheelock used Smedburg to

transport the pine tar to the army in Maryland.

Smedburg turned it over to the Vermont volunteers who shipped it to Proctor’s home in Vermont.

Proctor sold the pine tar in Vermont at a healthy profit.

WHAT SEEMINGLY ENDED THE WAR FOR PROCTOR?

Illness In the spring of 1862, Proctor

contracted tuberculosis He almost died at an army

field hospital. He recovered but in ill health,

resigned his commission and returned to Vermont to recuperate.

Illness In October 1862, Proctor fully

recovered, got bored and joined the Fifteenth Vermont Regiment as a Colonel.

He served at Gettysburg, but never got into combat.

After Gettysburg, his unit returned to Vermont where he was mustered out in 1863.

HOW DID THE WAR EXPERIENCE HELP PROCTOR LATER IN HIS LIFE?

War Experience Proctor cultivated the

friendships and contacts he made during military service.

His war-time experience in trading & deal making formed the basis for his later political power.

After the War By 1869, Proctor had

purchased a farm outside Rutland & a block of buildings downtown and set up a law partnership with Wheelock Veazey & Walter Dunton.

HOW DID PROCTOR GET STARTED IN THE MARBLE BUSINESS?

Getting into Marble In 1869, Proctor arranged

with a local judge to name him receiver of Dorr & Meyers, a tiny, debt-riddled marble company and the Sutherland Falls Marble Company.

He saw an advantage of combining the two.

Marble in Sutherland Falls

Sutherland Falls named for first settlers in the mid-1700s.

Humprey brothers built the first marble mill at Sutherland Falls in 1837, using the falls for power to cut and polish blocks.

Marble in Sutherland Falls The Humphrey’s never made

any money because it was too expensive to use horse & oxen drawn carts to ship the product.

Shortly after Civil War, Seneca Dorr & John Meyers formed a partnership & bought out the Humphreys.

Marble in Sutherland Falls

When John died, Dorr wanted to sell out to the Ripleys, but John’s wife, Mary, did not want to sell.

Mary felt Dorr took advantage of her husband, and that he was a terrible businessman.

Marble in Sutherland Falls

When the company went into receivership, she enlisted Redfield Proctor’s help to stop Dorr from selling the mill.

Proctor knew little about the marble business, but listened to Mary’s plan.

WHAT WAS MARY MEYER’S PLAN FOR THE MARBLE BUSINESS?

Mary’s Plan Consolidate the milling operation

at Sutherland Falls with the marble quarries in the area, and take over the whole business.

She felt that Vermont marble could be used in three major commerce areas: monuments, buildings and decorations.

Sutherland Falls Marble Company

Mary and Redfield formed a partnership, with him the business face and her discretely providing experience & advice.

In 1870, he formed the bankrupt company as the Sutherland Falls Marble Co.

Sutherland Falls Marble Company He first addressed the mill’s

accounts & was turning a profit within a few weeks.

Proctor consolidated all the quarrying, milling and shipping operations under the control of one company-and one man.

Within ten years, business doubled three times over.

HOW DID THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FRANK PARTRIDGE & THE PROCTORS BEGIN?

Fletcher Proctor & Frank Partridge It had been the late fall of 1874

when Frank Partridge first met Redfield Proctor and his son Fletcher when Frank and Fletcher became roommates boarding at Mrs. Potter’s house in Middlebury while going to school.

Frank thought Redfield was the most impressive man he had ever met.

Fletcher Proctor & Frank Partridge Proctor liked Frank’s cool

maturity for the age of 14, and a bond was struck between them, which endured throughout their lives.

Frank did not care very much for Fletcher, who he felt was self-possessed and had an unexplainable hold over Redfield

Fletcher Proctor & Frank Partridge A few years later, Frank helped

Fletcher at Middlebury College when Fletcher was caught cheating & was expelled.

Frank took the Latin exam for Fletcher which helped both of them get into Amherst.

Fletcher Proctor & Frank Partridge

Frank helped Fletcher get through Amherst, where they both graduated in 1882.

Fletcher went to work at the marble company & Frank went on to graduate from Columbia University Law School in 1884.

Fletcher Proctor & Frank Partridge

Frank returned to work for the marble company after law school, where his main function was to support Fletcher there.

WHAT WAS THE POLITICAL CLIMATE THAT LED TO THE PROPOSAL TO SPLIT RUTLAND?

Rutland Political Climate in 1890s In the 1890s, the general

impression was that the labor element was going to make a strong effort to carry the spring elections and try to get hold of the machinery of the town government-listers, overseer of the poor and selectmen.

Rutland Political Climate in 1890s Proctor’s political rival, Seneca

Dorr, had led the Democrats to a first ever elected representative in history to the state legislature.

The Democrats were claiming to be the party of the workers, and Proctor wanted to stop them from organizing labor.

Rutland Political Climate in 1890s Proctor wanted to divide Rutland

into smaller towns so that each town would have a smaller proportion of the workers voting and he felt he then could control their votes.

In a larger city of Rutland, the proportions would favor the workers uniting to vote.

WHAT ARE THE PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF REDFIELD PROCTOR?

Physical Characteristics Short, fairly thin, almost frail

looking.Long narrow face, high

cheekbones and thin nose.Eyes most distinctive, widely

spaced, cold & hard, could go back and forth between kindness & coolness instantly.

Physical Characteristics Heavy brows & high forehead. Neatly trimmed beard, brown

hair with reddish highlights, now streaked with gray.

Impeccably dressed in expensive, tailored conservative clothes.

Purpose emulating from his every feature and movement.