Legendry; Interview with Former Governor Deane Davis on His Early Years, Part 1 of 2

This is Frank Anthony. Tonight on legendary. We wrap up election month legendary 1978 with the elder statesman of living Vermont governors Dean Davis. For the last two legend reprograms former Governor Tom salmon told of the values he inherited from his predecessor Dean Davis. Tonight Dean Davis recalls the young Florence's of his grandparents his parents and a school teacher who taught him the importance of concentration as a habit. Here's part one of my two part interview. The November wrap up of legendary by former Governor Dean Davis. Welcome to legendary former Governor Dean Davis and it's very nice to have you here with us today. It's a pleasure to be here I assure you. Could we start out

by asking where you were born and when and what perhaps some of your early influences wore and go from there and fill our listeners in with your background. Well I was born in Barrie Vermont and I lived there only a year when my father was a country lawyer as I was later moved down to Barry city. What year was that gun that was in. I was born in 1900 and he moved down to bury city in 1901 opened his law office there as a young lawyer and I lived there was brought up in Bury as we monitor say and live there. Now after I was married and had children until of 1955 when I moved to Montpellier. My father as I said was a country lawyer and later on was probate judge of

Washington County for the last 20 years or so of his life. And my mother came from Windsor by the way she used to teach school down here in Windsor and she and my father met at Montpellier seminary where she was a waitress on the table at the table. Her mother was a cook at Montpellier seminary and I remember it's part of the legend in our family that my mother received ten cents a day for waiting on the table plus her education and board room. Could I ask you Governor Davis. If you could recollect just a bit about your grandparents and then perhaps your wife's grandparents. Well it's very interesting that you mention the grandparents because my both my grandfather and my grandmother had a great influence on my life. They lived in what is

known as Pike Hill over in the town of current which was about 20 miles away from Barry. But as a small boy I used to spend all the time I could. All of vacations and before even before I was old enough to actually go to school I spent more than half of a year with them and it's an interesting thing. How grandparents can have such an influence upon an individual because I was only about 8 years old when both of them died and all of these impressions that I have which are very clear in my mind today many many of them just happened there at my grandfather's place. That's a place where I learned to love Morgan horses for instance. He raised Morgan horses for the Boston market.

He taught me about them. I lived with them as they were in the early days of Vermont. And my grandmother was a tremendous person just really a tremendous person. There were no doctors in that area. In the early days and she was the one who always was call she was a kind of a. What in the old days were called domestic nurses. She didn't do it as a profession. She did it as part of her neighborly duty as she called it. And one of my greatest memories today is when I was about 5 years old being awakened in the middle of night with a lot of excitement in the kitchen. My grandfather's and I go out there. There's a blizzard raging. And a man has driven five miles with an exhausted horse to try to get my mother to come. My grandmother to come to help his wife who has come down with a bad case of pneumonia and they bundled grandma into that pung

sleigh with the old lantern and the the. The heating a stone you know they put in the oven so they put it under the robes so your feet are they set off in the in with the new with the horse that belonged to my grandfather. That's the way that's kind of person she was. She's the one who gave me my first. Really feeling for church. She made us all go to church. And but mainly it was her interest in the community and her interest in other people that she portrayed in her own life that left such a lasting impression on me. And that's very interesting indeed. And then your grandparents were actually involved in farming. Mostly yes they this was a this was a country and small country farm I believe at that time as I recall it that there were only about 10 or 12 cows. But then there were young stock growing up. They had sheep. They

had every kind of a farm animal that there was. And. The income of my grandfather back at that time. So I have been later told only ran about $500 a year from the sale of milk and all the rest of their living expenses they actually got right out of. They lived off the farm in other words. And my grandmother used to take in people who were for instance girls that got into trouble. I remember two of them that she took him later became almost daughters to her and she just had a tremendous capacity for life and people. And while I've never been able to do as well as she did I'm sure what little I have been able to accomplished in the field of social service and community service I think was first stimulated by her where both of your parents your father and your mother

educated beyond high school. My my mother was not educated beyond high school she started teaching after she graduated from Montpellier seminary. My father went on to University of Vermont and graduated from university of Amman and then studied law in the office of the of the uncle of Dr. Porter Dale who is my personal physician now in Montpellier who lived in Island Pond Vermont. And the reason for that was that after he got out of the University of Amman he was hired as principal of the Island Pond high school. Now as far as High school is concerned and as far as you yourself are concerned. Was there any particular influence that you can remember during your high school days here in Vermont.

Yes there was a there was a Latin teacher by the name of Stella Brooks that I was teaching at Spaulding High School where I went to school in Barre and she was one of those old fashioned dedicated teachers. We used to have so many of them still have quite a lot but not as many now I think. And I say this simply because I perhaps don't run. I have run across as many of them lately but she was the kind of person that took a personal interest in not only what she taught you but she took personal interest also in your your life your habits your personality your character and all that. She saw you doing things. Even outside of school of which she didn't approve. She didn't have the slightest hesitation and giving a lecture on it when you got school.

So she taught me the power of concentration and the need for concentration and study. Because Latin is as you well know I'm sure a subject you can't master unless you. Let's you do concentrate and concentration as a habit. I happen to believe is a most important one for anybody who wants to go on and improve themselves and learn more about the world and learn more about becoming an effective person. So I would say perhaps she's the one who and says Your question is. As and as appropriately as anyone. Stella Brooks and she taught Latin. She taught Latin. You know did you get. I know you at this point in your life seem to have a very great liking for history. And I wondered if there was any way that high school pointed you in that direction.

I can't put my finger on anything in high school that it pointed me in that direction because largely I guess because if there was any such thing I didn't recognize it at the time. My interest in history did not arise on till I was at least 60 years old. And it came as a result of my reading I'd like to tell you a little about my reading it like good you know you see my father was a first Davis that ever graduated had a liberal arts education. And it meant a great deal to him. And one of the great says things that disappointed him in his life was that I didn't have a real truly a true liberal education. It happened this way you see I was born in November 1900 and the last end of the First World War was on when I graduated from high school. And I had the we had the very serious

flu epidemic in Vermont at that time which I copped and was ill so that I was late. In getting into any college anywhere. And back at that time my father had nine children and it was a pretty rugged life to even keep keep them keep the home going and give them food and shelter and so on. So wherever I went to school it was perfectly obvious I was going to have to do it on my own. And when I got through in late September with the flu. I looked around to see what colleges there were long the Eastern Seaboard that still where I had space left where they had a student Army Training Corps education as ATC as we called it in those days that would be comparable to the ROTC. Very very

much the same except back at that time. Everybody that could pass the physical could could get into it your seat and then they took care of your full college expenses. And the only one left not fully filled was Boston University Law School. Well Boston University Law School at that time required two years of Liberal Arts in order to get in. And I didn't chorus have any liberal arts at that time but they. Agreed to let me take two years of Liberal Arts at the Boston University College of Liberal Arts. While I was taking the law course now this was one of the liberality ees that came about as a result of the pressures of the war and I must say that two years of Liberal Arts probably was not. Not much of a liberal arts education but it did satisfy the technical requirements. But when I came back to marry to open a law

office my father felt so badly about my lack of a real liberal arts education. He said the only way you can overcome that is to form a habit of reading not reading law only. But reading in every broad field that you have any interest in and your interest will enlarge as you read. The only way you can overcome that is form a habit of putting in at least one solid hour a day in reading and for 25 years I followed his advice in that respect. And I did read considerable history at that time although I am not aware of its exciting me too much. But when I got to be 60 I began to see all at once. How so many things that we were called upon to do in a social way in a business way in a professional way and in a governmental way all tied back

into history. And then as I began to talk with educators it did seem to me that in the college level and at the high school level there were so many other things crowding into the curricula that we were not giving history the emphasis that ought to have and was about that time that I began to get interested in history began to study it on my own. Was it after college that you started to get interested in political matters or did that happen in some way during college years. No I think any interested I head during the college years was purely from a distance point of view I was not involved in any way. But back in those days and I guess it's still true in Vermont. Young Lawyers get interested in political matters because in their first years of practice I usually have plenty of

time on their hands to do things and I think their their training is such that they are helpful in political matters. I do. I became interested in doing the chores for the candidates of my choice back in those early days and I can remember the days of torchlight parades in Barrie. Oh that was a never was great excitement and I used to I was a Republican and I guess it's true that I became a Republican largely because my father was a Republican and my father had a tremendous influence on my life. He had a he had a wisdom as it seemed to me WAY beyond. Anybody that was in my close range of acquaintance and he carried that into his law practice too. I think he was an

even better philosopher than he was a lawyer actually and he helped me very very much with his own attitudes and beliefs and all that sort of thing I can remember him getting out of college and where he did. He had studied history and physics and philosophy and all that sort of thing and he was tremendously impressed with the theory of the survival of the fittest. And a whole great deal of his philosophy somehow was centered around that central theme. I see. Barry was kind of a melting pot wasn't it you know it was a tremendous melting pot because we had because of the granite trade there principally which came into Barry in a big way in 1895. We had wonderful Italian population that came mostly from around Karrar Italy which was one of the real.

I think one of the best spots that Italy ever had was Karrar. And when we had a big percentage of a tad in's and then we had a smaller but still substantial group of Spanish people that came into Berry largely through the granite business also. And then we had a lot of people from Canada later on that came down to work there and also who bought farms on the outskirts of Barry and carried on their farms with their children and and worked in the sheds in the daytime which made it pretty good. Pretty good financial situation for their families and as my father used to say the best crop some of these Frenchmen French farmers had was their children because they had the children not working for they were six or seven years old. And as they went on and there's a lot of those second third generation French family

people that I knew that are carrying on the farms in the area around around Berry one of the interesting things is that the Canadian French that came into the barre area. They were the successful farmers by and large. You almost never found an unsuccessful French farmer you know around Barry anyway. Why do you think that was. Well I think part of it was due to the fact that they had their bringing up. You see originally the first generation ahead they're bringing up in Canada where they learned how to work and they learned how to run farms up there in a successful way that willing to pay the price. And then as they grew older you see that they had large families in those days and. The ones that did migrate had an awful lot of spunk an awful lot of drive. I think that's as much as anything. But I don't.

I don't overlook the fact that they had so many children. It was a big help because everyone of them went to work on a farm. Well girls or boys. Of course when one is involved in an activity such as farming and in a locale such as Canada or Vermont you have this whole business of having to chop the wood and having to cope with the winter and having to put up the vegetables and having to do all these these things so that I suspected the more pairs of hands that you could muster the better you would be. Well that's right. One of the big problems today is farming of course is that if you are dependent upon help. As the farms get bigger there has to be more help. And if you become dependent on help the costs of it are so high today that lots of people find it difficult to make a living. But you're speaking about these young people learning how to chop the wood and carry the water and all the other

things they. It all ministered to a to a result that effected their character in that they became very self-reliant people and they knew how to. They knew what was necessary to get a result done and they're willing to pay the price to do it. What were you involved in during World War Two and we're already seeing World War 2 that's started in and 1940 and ran until 1946 if I remember my I remember the dates I was general counsel of national life at that time. So after I came out of college I wouldn the law office in Barry and I practiced there until nineteen thirty when I was elected by the legislature to the bench. And I served as a superior judge for six years. And after

after I had served as superior judge for six years I was invited to join Governor Wilson and ex attorney general Carver and every Keizer who later became supreme court justice in a law firm and Barry and we practiced there for four years. Following that for years I was invited by national life to become general counsel the company which I did serve there for for 10 years and then I was elected president of the company and served for 17 years. What would you say was the most significant memory you have of Vermont during those World War Two years and then after the World War Two years. Well I I remember the I remember the rationing and price control program at that time and how difficult it was to finance and carry on in Vermont. And I remember that

the coming of machinery and of a mob seemed to be the impetus of that during that period was very rapid. Markets were changing markets for milk were changing the controls of federal and state over milk production and milk distribution was coming rapidly. I think those are the things I remember mostly. Whether any particular crisis points that stick in your memory. Well of course I remember the I remember Pearl Harbor. That was a traumatic experience for anybody at that that was of age at that time. Forty two wasn't forty one forty one you know forty one. I guess that about the only crisis point that I remember. Did you get persuaded at any point about there to go into politics or was it quite a while after that.

Well I was I was doing the chores of politics from the time I started practicing law and Barry was carrying on campaigns for candidates of my choice and all that sort of thing and I did run for representative in the city of Barry in 1930. Was it thirty five or thirty say anyway was when it was when Landon was defeated. Well as you and I have the distinction of being defeated for at the same time that Landon was and I wonder at this point. If during these final two minutes of our interview if you would care to see if there isn't some kind of advice you would give to young people who are interested in entering into political life well yes I think that the principal thing is to get involved fairly early with your with doing chores as I did back then I think that because that will give you an enduring interest

it will give you an acquaintance with people and it will give you an acquaintance with the practical side of political activity and you'll find a lot of fun too. And I think a lot of our young people are missing today. A lot of fun that they could have and a lot of good that they could do to the community because ours is a representative democracy. And if it's to continue we've got to have a continuing stream of young people coming into the activities that are presupposed in a in a representative democracy. That's the only witnesses that I can think of only real weaknesses that I can think of in our in our system today political system today is the fact that we have not solved the problem of getting enough people actually interested in it to do some work. That's the only way you can really make an enduring influence. On Governor Davis I want to thank you very much for this first part of legendary here

on Vermont Public Radio and I'm looking forward to our next interview and next Saturday when we'll be able to talk more specifically about ACT 250 and some of the more interesting things that you got into when you became governor of the state. It was been a pleasure Drew. The only problem with these programs is they're not long enough. Well we'll look forward to next Saturday. Thank you. Thank you for joining us tonight on legendry. Next week Dean Davis discusses the greater challenges while he was governor. In particularly he reviews and reveals things about ACT 2:50 the law that was a great vision and a great heritage. Join us next Saturday at 7:00 p.m. on Vermont Public Radio's legendry. Good evening.

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