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100 Years Strong Sharing Memories With Lucien Paquette

photo by provided Sitting in his Middlebury home, Lucien Paquette is looking forward to Field Days, turning 100 and the annual celebration of farming, life and living in Addison County.

photo by provided In his job as Addison County Extension Service, Lucien Paquette also was in charge for several years in the 1950’s of the UVM Morgan Horse Farm. Many readers would be surprised to learn that Field Days was held there for three years during the 1950’s.

photo by provided Married in 1945, Lucien and Loretta Paquette were married for 58 years before her passing in 2003 and raised all twelve children grounded in the land, farming and family.

photo by provided Photographed in 1965 and in 2013 respectively, the twelve children of Lucien and Loretta Paquette smiled for the camera.

Tuesday August 9, 2016

By Cookie Steponaitis

Lucien Paquette will turn 100 on August 14th, 2016 and a county will celebrate. While joining the Century Club is special, visiting with Lucien Paquette suggests a different reason for celebration. For Lucien, it is a time to celebrate one hundred years on the land and the agricultural community that calls this region of Vermont home. Lucien Paquette has spent a lifetime promoting, teaching and getting the message out about how to be successful as a Vermont farmer.
    Lucien was born in Craftsbury  in 1916, the third of seven children born to Adelard and Mary Paquette who emigrated from Canada in 1910. There were thirty cows on the family farm and Lucien grew up working with a horse team and milking by hand. A gasoline engine powered a milking machine in the late 1930’s and the farm did not get electricity until 1942. The now famous hand mowing skills that Addison County Field Days fans know Lucien for began at a young age. Lucien got summer jobs on local farms through high school and learned how to hand mow by doing hours of it. He graduated from Craftsbury Academy in 1935 and spent a year deciding what he wanted to do. He worked for a man who made skis for an entire year and to this day does not remember getting a paycheck from his promised salary of 35 cents an hour. His teacher Eunice Anderson encouraged him to pursue college and Paquette enrolled in the University of Vermont in 1937 with tuition costs of $300.00 a year and earned a Hood Scholarship for $100.00.
    The UVM years established a relationship between the university and Lucien Paquette that would last over fifty years. While earning his agriculture degree, Paquette started and developed a thriving poultry business. There was a small building with a lower level and loft on the property that was not in use. Paquette was allowed to live there rent free, had his flock on the ground floor and his sleeping quarters up above. Besides earning the grades that would graduate him Magna Cum Laude, Paquette had an egg route delivering fresh eggs throughout the city of Burlington. His older brother Lionel was teaching Vocational Agriculture in Grensboro and had his own growing business known today as Shadow Cross Farm, but wanted to pick up the poultry business started by Lucien, which he did and developed.
    Paquette graduated in 1940 and interviewed for and got hired on the spot as a County Extension Agent in Grand Isle. “In addition to there being only five towns in the county,” shared Paquette, “there was a large French Canadian community. I got to know everyone. My job was to get educational information out to the farms. It was just after the war years and they were still rationing farming equipment. A tractor coming available met a lottery and people waiting to hear.  News was carried out in a weekly news column.” During his six years in Grand Isle County, the UVM Extension Service grew to where part time secretaries were needed and it was then that Lucien met Loretta Paquette. He hired her to become his secretary and on February 5th, 1945 the pair became husband and wife.  They were married for 58 years and raised a family of twelve children together and Lucien refers to his late wife as ‘his joy’.
The couple moved to Addison County in 1946 and Lucien continued his position with the University of Vermont as the Agricultural Extension Agent for Addison County. Their children Dennis, Judy, Nancy, Stephen, Francis, Gary, Thomas, Michael, David, Barbara, Rene and Janice grew up in the area and attended Middlebury schools. Paquette marvels to this day at the patience and organizational skills of wife Loretta who would keep the twelve organized and on a schedule. “I would come home from a long day and a meeting into the evening. She would have them taking baths and then would line up their school clothes for the morning in the order they would get into them. She was forever washing, cooking and seemed to love every minute of it.”
    Using the newspaper and radio to get the farming word out, Lucien did a daily radio program on WFAD and a weekly news column. “I wanted to reach the most people with the most information possible,” remarked Paquette. From that vantage point came the birth of Addison County Fair & Field Days (ACFFD). “Craftsbury used to have a one day agricultural fair when I was growing up,” explained Paquette. “My mother gave me a whole quarter and told me to go to the fair. She absolutely loved Wrigley’s Spearmint Gum which was 5 cents. I went to the fair and bought her a package and came home with all the change.”
    Paquette knew he found himself in a supportive community and found ways to reach out to farmers and everyone who came through about the quality of Addison County Farm Products. “There was a period of time where we had 4X8 signs that read ‘Entering Addison County Land of Milk & Honey’ and we would post them,” chuckled Paquette.  Searching for a way to teach and reach the next generation, Paquette went back to the agricultural fair format and in 1948 opened up the first Addison County Field Days with the help of two other federal agencies and UVM Extension people Leona Thompson and Harriet Proctor. “It was a two day event,” shared Paquette, “and it all took place in one tent one hundred feet long on a farm on Munger Street in Middlebury. We would work to find farmers interested in letting us host the fair on their land and then go about the set up. Remember part of demonstrating farming was digging ponds, plowing and demonstrating the latest in equipment which in 1948 included a hay crusher and the beginnings of freezing poultry.” It would surprise most readers to know that for four years in the 1950’s the fair was actually held on the grounds of the UVM Morgan Horse Farm which Paquette was in charge of as half of his responsibilities for UVM.
    Addison County Fair & Field Days continued to grow each year and became a non-profit organization. Lucien Paquette and the board spearheaded the purchase of the land and permanent grounds in the early 1970’s. “We were so pleased with the support and enthusiasm we had,” remarked Paquette. “Each year the offerings would increase and the 4-H and Holstein Barn additions were turning points in the fair.” Besides educating people about the different fields, careers and techniques associated with farming, Paquette sees the fair as a celebration of people and his favorite pastime of ‘visitin.’  “When I go to the fair and walk down through the buildings, I get stopped by people I have known forever and some who seem to feel they have known me forever. We talk, we shake hands and we talk about farming.”
    As a member of the ACFFD Board of Directors for fifty years, Paquette has helped shape the growth of the program and the inclusion of all sorts of agricultural products made in Addison County. This year’s board wrote in the program book, “It is our pleasure to present the opportunity for area citizens to showcase the quality products they have produced.” While generations of Vermonters know Addison County Fair & Field Days as a place to have fun, eat fair food and experience all farming has to offer, Fair Founder Lucien Paquette has always added another layer of education to the event. Come on down August 9th-13th, 2016 and be a part of history in the making. Not only will the founder of the fair turn 100 but he will again compete in the Hand Mowing Event he started in 1978. Whether you cheer on a youngster with their first cow showing, yell for a favorite at Demolition Derby, ride a horse in a 4-H show, browse the sheep exhibits, ox pulling, tractor pulls, Twist O’ Wool Guild Exhibit, catch a dairy show or visit the newest in tractors or the antiques on display, may your heart be open to learning new things and may your hand be ready for a firm handshake from an agricultural man who turns 100. To this day Lucien Paquette is proudly a family man, farmer, educator and delighted participant in a growing and evolving Addison County Farm & Field Days. Watch the smile on his face as he discusses ACFFD and you know what brings him joy. To conclude Lucien grinned at this reporter and said, “See you at the fair!”

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