Bethel
“We did enjoy it very much,” said Margaret Daniel, 85, who attended with her daughter Madelaine Daniel.
During the May 13 event, the Bethel residents visited with women who had been Madelaine’s teachers. She enjoyed the chance to see people she hadn’t seen for a while, and to appreciate what the library is doing, Margaret said in a telephone interview. “I think it was a nice idea.”
The party was part of the library’s 125th anniversary celebrations. Branliere, who died in 1965 at age 82, played an important role in the organization’s history.
Founded in 1892, the library was first located in what was then the new Town Hall. In 1909, it moved to a large room in the Main Street building that is now the site of Spaulding Press.
The following year, it arrived in its current home.
The former bank was expanded in 1970, doubling its size.
Branliere had been a longtime president of the Library Association, and the improvements were funded by her largesse — upon her death she left “a handsome endowment” to the library, according to information provided at the tea.
“She’s the reason we are so blessed to have the building we have,” said Librarian Cathy Day, the 11th person to serve in that role.
Even today, most of the library’s income comes from Branliere’s endowments.
“We’ve had great treasurers who totally invested the way they should,” Day said in a telephone interview.
The daughter of William B. C. Stickney, a Bethel lawyer and president of National White River Bank, Branliere lived in the town for most of her life, except for during World War I, when she drove an ambulance in France, her goddaughter, Joyce Richardson, said.
During that time she married a Frenchman, but he did not return with her to the United States, Richardson, 85, said in a telephone interview. She later lived with her aunt in Bethel.
Branliere’s generosity was not limited to the library. She also left a sizeable sum to Christ Episcopal Church, where she’d had her own pew, and gave land to the town, Richardson said. Bethel’s Branliere Forest, a 70-acre parcel she donated, is named for her.
She also was generous during her lifetime, a habit she kept mostly to herself, said Richardson, of Bethel. “She would help unfortunate people. It was very hush-hush. … She didn’t tell everybody.”
The recent celebration was held in the library, which is home to portraits of Branliere and her aunt.
“She just strikes me as the type of lady that would like to go to a tea,” Day said a few days before the party. “We’re going to try and make it really special for her.”
Given Branliere’s social life, it was a fitting choice.
A dear friend of Richardson’s grandmother, she often hosted teas at her Main Street home “for different ladies in town,” Richardson said. The guest list mostly included fellow church members, but sometimes women from other churches would also attend.
Richardson recalled seeing Branliere at Sunday church services, where all the women wore hats and gloves, and often visited her home, with its beautiful flower gardens and “lovely, lovely” asparagus bed, she said. “I admired her because she was such a lovely, beautiful woman. … She was wonderful to sit and talk to.”
The library’s anniversary celebrations will continue into the fall. The next event in the series will feature a different beverage: a beer tasting by Bent Hill Brewery at Bethel Village Sandwich Shop, June 23 at 6:30 p.m.
Aimee Caruso can be reached at acaruso@vnews.com or 603-727-3210.