Two sides of Alice Holway
"Alice Holway worked for George Aiken at the Putney Nursery in the 1970's but she also had a farm of her own. She lists her occupation as nurseryman on a census document. "But she also took care of other peoples children in her home" recalls Ann McBroom, of Putney, "there were always children running around the kitchen while she read the New York Times," Ann said, "she had a nursery for children and plants." Rick Zaymore who arrived in Putney that decade, a tall, suntanned, blond adonis, and was quickly taken in by the group living at her farm off Aiken Road. '"Can you imagine I arrived in the seventies and it was lesbian nation. My room was off the kitchen near the greenhouse," he said.
I too was not able to resist the magic spell of Alice Holway and I shopped for exotic herbs at her private greenhouse. I enjoyed visiting her back then, it was always an adventure with lots of information about plants to go along with my purchase.
Alice Holway took people into her home, there were no work requirements although everybody pitched in. She had rooms in her house and a chicken coop that apparently was also a residence. Which I believe is where Eva Mondon and Lesley Straley lived, because it's always been known to me as Eva's chicken Coop. Eva and Leslie went on to create the Putney Daycare, to take care of all the children of Putney, where I worked in the 1970's.
I didn't know anything about her past. But when I realized she was the namesake for the much disputed Town Road, Alice Holway Drive, I thought let's find out. What an amazing person she was with a gigantic ability to help people. So, here are a few details.
"The women's Farm Army insisted on fair labor practices
and pay equal to male laborers’ wages for its workers
and taught women not only agricultural skills but also
leadership and management techniques."
During the last pandemic in 1918 many families sent their children to remote locations to minimize exposure to the Spanish Flu, I wonder if that is another reason she came here?
I've been informed that she didn't like the name Farmerette. Can you guess why?
From the Vermont Historical site-
In the summer of 1918-New farmerette Alice Holway, excited but terrified, waved goodbye to her strict Methodist family at the Worcester train station. She was on her way to Rudyard Kipling’s former estate in Brattleboro, Vt. There she would join 10 University of Vermont college girls in the Naulahka unit of the Women’s Land Army. She had never been away from home before.
link to the book about the Women's Land Army in text-
From 1917 to 1920 the WLA sent more than twenty thousand urban women into rural America to take over farm work after the men went off to war and food shortages threatened the nation. These women, from all social and economic strata, lived together in communal camps and did what was considered “men’s work” plowing fields, driving tractors, planting, harvesting, and hauling lumber. The Land Army was a civilian enterprise organized and financed by women. It insisted on fair labor practices and pay equal to male laborers’ wages for its workers and taught women not only agricultural skills but also leadership and management techniques. Despite their initial skepticism, farmers became the WLA’s loudest champions, and the farmerette was celebrated as an icon of American women’s patriotism and pluck.
I too was not able to resist the magic spell of Alice Holway and I shopped for exotic herbs at her private greenhouse. I enjoyed visiting her back then, it was always an adventure with lots of information about plants to go along with my purchase.
Alice Holway took people into her home, there were no work requirements although everybody pitched in. She had rooms in her house and a chicken coop that apparently was also a residence. Which I believe is where Eva Mondon and Lesley Straley lived, because it's always been known to me as Eva's chicken Coop. Eva and Leslie went on to create the Putney Daycare, to take care of all the children of Putney, where I worked in the 1970's.
I didn't know anything about her past. But when I realized she was the namesake for the much disputed Town Road, Alice Holway Drive, I thought let's find out. What an amazing person she was with a gigantic ability to help people. So, here are a few details.
"The women's Farm Army insisted on fair labor practices
and pay equal to male laborers’ wages for its workers
and taught women not only agricultural skills but also
leadership and management techniques."
During the last pandemic in 1918 many families sent their children to remote locations to minimize exposure to the Spanish Flu, I wonder if that is another reason she came here?
I've been informed that she didn't like the name Farmerette. Can you guess why?
From the Vermont Historical site-
In the summer of 1918-New farmerette Alice Holway, excited but terrified, waved goodbye to her strict Methodist family at the Worcester train station. She was on her way to Rudyard Kipling’s former estate in Brattleboro, Vt. There she would join 10 University of Vermont college girls in the Naulahka unit of the Women’s Land Army. She had never been away from home before.
link to the book about the Women's Land Army in text-
From 1917 to 1920 the WLA sent more than twenty thousand urban women into rural America to take over farm work after the men went off to war and food shortages threatened the nation. These women, from all social and economic strata, lived together in communal camps and did what was considered “men’s work” plowing fields, driving tractors, planting, harvesting, and hauling lumber. The Land Army was a civilian enterprise organized and financed by women. It insisted on fair labor practices and pay equal to male laborers’ wages for its workers and taught women not only agricultural skills but also leadership and management techniques. Despite their initial skepticism, farmers became the WLA’s loudest champions, and the farmerette was celebrated as an icon of American women’s patriotism and pluck.