The Best Musical Performance Ever Heard in Brattleboro (1898)
In 1898 Brattleboro hosted a concert in the town hall auditorium on Main Street. The concert was organized to raise funds for the Brattleboro Soldiers Aid Society. This organization existed to support the soldiers serving in the Spanish American War and planned to raise $1000 at the event.Continue reading→
William French and the Westminster Massacre
William French lived on Old Ferry Road. He was born in 1753 and died in 1775, 8 days shy of his 22nd birthday. His early death arrived in a hail of gunfire at the Westminster courthouse. His body was struck by five bullets fired by his neighbors. How does a community get to the point...Continue reading→
The Great Cow Wars
The Arms Tavern was located where the Retreat Farmhouse is now. In January, 1784 the tavern was surrounded by armed men who fired musket balls and buckshot into the building. Two men inside the tavern were wounded from the attack. This was one of many military actions that took place during the Great Cow Wars...Continue reading→
Williams Street then and now.
Williams Street then and now during the construction of Interstate 91.
Deadly Flu Pandemic Hit Brattleboro in 1918
The first Brattleboro death from the flu epidemic occurred on September 30, 1918. The victim was a 36-year-old Fort Dummer Cotton Mill worker named Isidor Bellair. He was a French Canadian immigrant who had moved his family to Brattleboro two years earlier in order to find work at the mill. He was survived by his...Continue reading→