Quilting the Pieces: Jews and Slaughterhouses in Vermont

Paul Lane is visiting this evening. We had a good time looking at material about his family's businesses in Waterville, Maine, where he grew up. Check here for a long article on Levine's, the family business in Maine.

Shonyo family

Paul's father Melvin came to Lyndonville, Vermont, and bought a packinghouse (slaughter and meat business) owned by four men: Doug Gilmour, John Weston (a large Maine cattle dealer), James Wixstead, and Bruce McGregor. The ownership before this foursome was in the hands of brothers Howard and Louis Shonyo. Shonyo was an Americanized spelling of Chagnon; that family came from Canada and the Shonyo genealogy page is here. They certainly weren't Jewish -- but Paul's father was, and Paul is, and so the meat business as Lane's Slaughterhouse took root in a deep understanding of both meat and the values of life that involve humanely slaughtering an animal and making the most of using its meat.

George Solomon; photo from Duckshots

Any Jewish business in northern Vermont in the second half of the 20th century connected with George Solomon, who lived in the Burlington area and transported Kosher meat products -- as well as caskets.  George was the person you needed for a Jewish funeral. His death in 2010 was a loss for Jewish culture in the state, and also for the many people who came to know him over the years. Here's a nice piece from Lorin Duckman, a photographer and writing now in Greenfield, Mass. And here's another from author Ruth Horowitz, who traveled with George to Jewish Montreal. George's obituary is here.

So these are some quick pieces of the Lane family background. I'd like to find more. And I'll do the same for any other Jewish family in the Northeast Kingdom ... most Jewish-heritage residents of the NEK have only a generation or two in Vermont, with roots elsewhere. But you know what roots do, right? They nourish the rest of the plant. Let's get the roots written up.

Photos, too. Maine is WAY ahead of us in building a photo archive and family database for the state's Jewish residents. Vermont can get rolling, here.