What do Lady Danbury, Beau Brummell, Johnny Walker, and Louis the 14th all have in common? They all wear a walking stick.

A walking stick, as a prop for tired legs, has been around for millennia. In the Middle Ages, it was often called a ‘Pilgrim’s Staff’ since it was carried by those who trudged 100s or 1000s of miles to visit a holy shrine. But the Walking Stick as a fashion accessory perhaps came into use in the 1600s.

The French King Louis XIV was worried about assassins, so he banned the carrying of swords in court. Since gentlemen were in the habit of resting their left hand on the pommel of their swords, they now had nothing to do with their hands. A decorative staff, the length of a sword and with costly embellishments, became the substitute, and a fashion trend was born. The custom moved to England and by the early 1800s, both men and women were sporting them. The term of use was “to wear” a walking stick or cane, not “to carry” it. Indeed, these sticks were rarely touching the ground, most were too short to use as an actual cane — they were pure fashion.

The fashion continued late into the 1800s in the United States. [My great-grandfather in Pennsylvania had an ebony cane with an ivory knob.] This all lead to a brilliant marking ploy for the Boston Post newspaper. In 1909, sales needed a boost, so the publisher, Edwin A. Grozier, devised the idea of a ceremonial cane to be awarded to the eldest male resident of 700 towns in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. The canes were made of ebony by the J.F. Fradley company of New York. Each cane had a gold knob proclaiming it to be the gift of the Boston Post.

The canes were sent out to each town’s Board of Selectmen, who were to identify the oldest man in town and present the cane to him, with appropriate pomp. At first, this was seen as a great honor, but problems loomed. Several recipients’ families though that the cane was a gift and belonged to his survivors, despite the words “TO BE TRANSMITTED” engraved on the knob. The cane was supposed to be returned to the Select Board for reassignment, and this lead to some uncomfortable situations in many towns.

Then there was the fact that the Oldest Citizen would at some point die. So many cane holders died within months or weeks of receiving it, that the Cane was viewed as a curse. Some citizens refused to take it, leading to years with no one holding the Cane. Eventually, the Oldest Citizen was permitted to be a woman, thus the Cane could go to the actual eldest person in town.

Over the years, many of the original 700 Canes have been lost [in house fires] or stolen [watch for them in antique stores and alert the town named on the knob] or broken. There are 517 towns that still have an original Cane, Bennington, New Hampshire included. Many towns, wishing to preserve the tradition, have made replicas of their cane, keeping the original in the town’s museum and awarding the replica. Bennington’s original Boston Post Cane may be seen at the Historical Society. The Boston Post newspaper was last seen in 1957, but the Boston Post Cane lives on.

Cane Holders in Bennington: 1909-1915 Willard S. Carkin His widow did not want to give it back. 1915-1921 John Milton Bartlett 1921-1940 Thomas Wilson 1940-1944 Jerome Sawyer 1944-1948 Edward Newton 1948-1959 George Holmes 1960-1961 Minnie F. Cady, first woman in town to hold the Cane 1961-1964 Edith Lillian Lawrence 1964 J. Harvey Balch received the Cane, but turned it in when he moved to another town in an unknown year. ??-1983 Lena Tayler/Taylor was next, but she moved to Pennsylvania in 1983, so she turned in the cane. 1983-1984 Marion L. Griswold 1984-1984 Theresa Cashion Gibson, who beat out her closest age-mate, Mrs. Vivian Stimson, by being 2 days older 1984-1985 Vivian Stimson 1985-??? Margaret Sawyer, daughter-in-law of Jerome Sawyer, see above 19?? Margaret Sawyer’s brother-in-law, making three in one family! 198?-1994 Francis H. LeBlanc 2022 John Ferranti

The next installment of the Bennington NH Historical Society Blog will be posted on October 23, 2023. If you click the Follow button, all future posts will be sent straight to your inbox every month.