Articles - Brattleboro Historical Society

Indigenous People in the Connecticut River Valley

In 1985 archeologist Peter Thomas published research on Indigenous People who had been living in our area before Europeans arrived in the 1600’s. Thomas had been a participant in an archeological dig that took place near the Vernon Dam and, after much analysis, he published his findings. According to Thomas, the Indigenous People who lived here followed a seasonal pattern. In March, when salmon, shad and alewives began their runs up the Connecticut River, families gathered by the Vernon rapids and the confluence of the West and Connecticut Rivers for a month or so, while large amounts of fish were eaten and processed for later use. By late April and throughout May farming activities began. Corn fields along the river were prepared and seeds planted. Fishing continued throughout this period and hunting of migratory birds also occurred. By summer, small family-based communities were centered in settlements surrounded by the plantings of corn, beans and […]

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.

Mary Rogers, Vt. execution and “Fake News” (1905)

Wednesday, June 21, 1905 was a bustling day in Brattleboro. Rumors were flying that a convicted killer would arrive by train for a federal hearing to determine whether the murderer should be executed on Friday, or allowed to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. There had not been an execution in Vermont for thirteen years. Convicted criminals had been sentenced to death during those years, but the Vermont Legislature voted to commute their sentences. This case seemed to be different. For one thing, the convicted murderer was a young woman, Mary Rogers. She was originally from Hoosick Falls, New York and had married a twenty five year old man when she was fifteen. Four years later Mary left her husband and moved to Bennington. At nineteen, Mary separated from her husband and publicly dated many men. One of her boyfriends was Morris Knapp and she seemed to fall in love with him. Her husband had […]

George Washington, Ona Judge and Susannah Bradshaw (slavery 1840’s)

George Washington was born in 1732. He was the first President of the United States, leader of the Continental Army during the American Revolution and presided over the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. He certainly was a great influence on the founding and formation of the United States. While researching the life of Brattleboro’s Susannah Bradshaw we came across references about George Washington in newspaper articles from the 1840’s. Susannah Bradshaw was an infant when her parents moved to Brattleboro in 1823. At the time, the Bradshaw’s were the only African American family living in town. The 1820 census shows that there were 2027 residents in Brattleboro. Three of the people listed in the census were African American servants who worked for two prominent families. Each of them lived with the family they worked for. There were no African American families recorded in the census before the Bradshaw’s arrived. The Bradshaw’s first rented, and later purchased, […]

Evelyn Harris and the ski jump (1920’s)

This week in Brattleboro History we’re going to focus on one of Brattleboro’s many independent women…you may have heard of past trailblazers like Clarina Nichols, Mary Wilkins, Dr. Grace Burnett, Marion McCune Rice and Mary Cabot. Each, in her own way, demonstrated a strength and ability to carve a successful female path in a male-dominated culture. Another female pioneer was Evelyn Harris. She was born in 1897. Her father was the treasurer of the Brattleboro Savings Bank. Her Brother, Fred Harris, was a year and a half older and went on to become a Brattleboro legend. He graduated from Dartmouth College, became President of the Brattleboro Outing Club, organized the construction of the ski jump named after him, founded the Retreat Meadows AirField, became a pilot and was a famous New England sportsman. Evelyn Harris, Fred’s little sister, was just as driven and motivated as Fred but she did not have the same opportunities. […]

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 where neighbor will shoot neighbor? The early days of Brattleborough were contentious. Some settlers were loyal to New York, some to New Hampshire, some liked British rule, and some despised it. In those first years, those loyal to New York and the King of England controlled town government. Land speculation was a driving influence along the Connecticut River. In 1764 the King’s Council gave control of all land west of the Connecticut River to the colony of New York. Under Massachusetts and New Hampshire oversight, settlers had been in the area since the 1720’s but now, forty years later, Great […]

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 and was the catalyst for finally bringing the conflict to a close. You may not have heard of them, but the Great Cow Wars were a series of local confrontations that partially overlapped with the larger American Revolution. From 1779 to 1784 this region of the Connecticut River Valley was in constant conflict. Many landowners were not interested in becoming citizens or taxpayers of the newly declared Vermont Republic. Settlers who had moved into this area during the previous twenty years were faced with the choice of declaring loyalty to New York, Vermont, Great Britain and/or the United States. Whichever […]

Stephen Bradley and Vermont Statehood 1784-1791

In 1784 the southeastern corner of Vermont was in great turmoil. Two hundred and forty years ago, residents loyal to New York were in revolt against the Vermont government. At the time, the Attorney General of Vermont was Stephen R. Bradley. On January 10th he issued a document addressed to those residents refusing to comply with Vermont laws. He said that the Vermont government was willing to forget past transgressions if those refusing to follow Vermont laws would pledge allegiance to the state. This offer was not accepted by the Yorkers. Stephen R. Bradley was also a colonel in the Vermont Militia and reported the following event to the Vermont Journal publication. We have paraphrased his reporting to make it more easily understood. On Saturday morning, January 17th, I received a report that the night before a group of twenty armed men had marched from Guilford to Brattleboro and arrived at the Arms Tavern around […]

Samuel Wells and British Spies in the Revolution

This week we tell the story of an early local Brattleborough resident who was described by the United States Congress as a “perfidious man”. In 1730 Samuel Wells was born in Deerfield, Massachusetts. That’s about 25 miles south of here. He was a tavern keeper in Deerfield and also served in the Massachusetts militia during the French and Indian War. Like many war veterans, as the conflict was winding down, Wells decided to move into the northern frontier territory that had recently been part of the war between the Abenaki, French and British. In 1762 British colonists began to build homes and successfully claim land north of Fort Dummer. Both British colonies, New York and New Hampshire, claimed the area. The Abenaki had been fighting to remain on the land for at least 100 years but, with the end of the war, their French allies withdrew from the region and the Abenaki found it more […]

Early local government (1753-1803)

The town of Brattleboro was chartered as part of the New Hampshire Grants in 1753. European settlement took hold in the region after French Indian War hostilities ceased around 1760. Then, in 1764, the King of England fixed the boundary between NH and NY at the Connecticut River and the grants of land established by the New Hampshire colony came into question. As a result, twenty settlers in the area petitioned the New York colony for township recognition. New York Governor Moore granted the township of Brattleboro and this area began to function as part of the British colony of New York. To complicate matters, in 1767 the King of England ruled that New York authorities could not harass people who produced a valid land deed from the NH government. This meant that deeds granted by both NY and NH were considered valid, even if they were in conflict with one another. People on the […]

Battle of Bennington Revised History (1843)

In 1843 the local paper, The Vermont Phoenix, published a revised history of Vermont’s influence during the Revolutionary War. The events in the Revolutionary War that were up for reinterpretation concerned Brattleboro and the Battle of Bennington. In 1843 the War for Independence had been over for 77 years and people thought they knew what had happened. History books had written about the reasons and outcomes of the war but new information was coming to light from sources that had not previously been represented in the documentation concerning the Revolutionary War. History books had long established that the Battle of Bennington, between the British and the Americans, was one of the turning points of the war. The Americans won the battle capturing, killing and wounding almost 1000 British soldiers. The British objective of the battle had been to seize as many supplies…including food, horses, cattle, wagon and oxen from the Vermonters as possible. The British […]

Battle For New England

Bennington Battle Day is on August 16th. It has been an official state holiday since 1913, but many communities have been celebrating the day since 1777. The holiday remembers a time when New England governments joined together to repel an invasion of British soldiers and their mercenaries during the American Revolution. In July, 1777, it had been a year since the Declaration of Independence was adopted by representatives of the thirteen British American colonies. Great Britain planned to break the rebellion by cutting New England away from the rest of the newly declared United States of America. According to historian James Butler, the British government thought isolating New England from the rest of the North American continent would quell the colonial insurrection. American military leader George Washington believed the British Empire would attack Boston, and invade from the sea. However, British forces began to arrive in Canada during May and, by mid-June, they launched an […]