Board of Trustees

I became a BHS volunteer in about 2007, a few years after my kids went off to college. A simple old Brattleboro postcard I bought online, and the book, “Before Our Time” were the two things that held that Brattleboro history spark for me. A friend urged me to contact BHS, telling me: “they always need volunteers!” and so my BHS journey began.

Learning my way around BHS and its huge collection came first, along with learning the history of Brattleboro which fascinated me, but with which I was not entirely familiar.

I was asked to be on the board several months after I became involved with BHS and eventually I was asked to be president, a true honor. As president my goals have been to better organize our collections to make them easily accessible to every volunteer, thus making them more easily available to the public. Offering more programs and events to the public has been another goal of mine.

One of the biggest challenges for BHS, and most other historical societies, has been to keeping up with the times and switching to a digital format. Having tech people on our board has been a huge boon to our organization. We continue to forge ahead!

But for me, the best part of being involved with BHS as either a volunteer or a trustee has been learning, laughing and making the public aware of our fabulous history.

I've been involved with BHS since late 2022. My interest in Brattleboro history somewhat snuck up on me, as I was cataloging and organizing old water service records during the off season at my job with the Department of Public Works. The earliest of these records date back to the town's acquisition of George Crowell's water system in 1925, and it was fascinating to see how service records were kept 100 years ago. A lot of these records would simply list the name of the homeowners and oftentimes wouldn't even include a house number. It became my job to sort through these records, find their current addresses, and digitize them for the 21st century.

From there, those historical curiosities blossomed into a town-wide interest in how we ended up here. I began to unearth a plethora of information I found fascinating, and eventually began featuring these stories on an Instagram page dubbed the "Landmarks of Brattleboro." It's always fun to dive into a story and run into connections to other things you've researched. It's like slowly piecing together the social fabric of the town at a specific point in history.

One of my notable interests is all the late 18th and early 19th-century houses still standing proud around town. It's one thing to read about historical events, but having the actual historical houses here is especially incredible - and something we shouldn't take for granted. I'm always amazed by just how much history a small town like Brattleboro can hold.

As a person born and raised in Brattleboro of parents also born in Brattleboro, and an 11th generation American, I have heard family stories all my life.  My father inherited a family genealogy written in 1879 by Charles Henry James Douglas in which he relates the story of the family from its first introduction to the New World in 1640 in Massachusetts.  My great grand-father, Edward Martin Douglas, and later members of the family added to it.  The last handwritten entry contains the names of my daughter and her cousins, after which there are no remaining blank pages in the original book.

So, an interest in family history led me to BHS.  Of course, it helped that my mother was also interested and was an early member of BHS.  I joined, with her encouragement in about 1997, and became active after my retirement.  John Carnahan gave me my first assignment – researching the history of Spruce Island.

It amazes me that I am still learning about the archives and artifacts contained in our files and storage rooms, some of which have come from my own home.  The family names of Farrington, Douglas, Phelps, Thayer, Bixby, Dunham, Cavanaugh, Holland, King, Haskell, and Titus are still found in New England.  As my younger sister once said “There are more than 100 first and second cousins around the country who are related to us”.

I have been a resident of Brattleboro since 1977  and owned and managed Friends of the Sun for over 40 years. I was a member of the Planning Commission for nine years, serving as chair for two. I also was a member of the Brattleboro Club for over 25 years. My most satisfying work with Rotary was as a member of the Projects Committee and I do similar work with the Historical Society. I enjoy being involved with the “nuts and bolts” that help make it possible for people to do research, write papers and get the History of Brattleboro out to the people in Town. I am currently the Treasurer.

I have been involved with BHS since the early 90’s researching artifacts and structures found scuba diving in local waters. I was born and raised across the river in Hinsdale N.H,  now a resident of Brattleboro.  I enjoy working on the BHS Facebook and Youtube sites and scanning the photo and negative archive into a digital format for future generations to enjoy.

(longest serving trustee)

Bill Holiday is a 50 year career educator and author of two books: “JFK Assassination - What They Told Me”   & “Beyond the Classroom”. Holiday is JFK Lancer’s 1999 National Teacher of the Year.

I joined the Historical Society in 2009 and became a board member in 2013.  It's good to know about the place where you live.  Richard Michelman, John Carnahan and Walt Harrington first piqued my interest in local history and I've been volunteering at the Society ever since.  It's fun to work with people who want to share local research, artifacts, and stories with our community.  For many years I was a social studies teacher at Brattleboro Area Middle School.  Historian Carl Becker is credited with saying, "History is how the present chooses to remember the past". I believe exploring local history with others is a way to honor those who came before, and share stories that add context to our lives today.

Peter Root was born in 1945 and grew up in Brattleboro.  HIs family goes back, in this part of Vermont, for many generations. He has ancestors who were stationed at Fort Dummer.  He grew up in the Vet’s Village on S. Main Street. Peter graduated from Brattleboro High School and drove truck for most of his life. He is a passionate researcher and brings a wealth of local knowledge to the Brattleboro Historical Society Board.