Main Street - Brattleboro Historical Society

Ruth Atkinson and the Trees BHS (1950’s)

A little over seventy years ago, UVM Professor Leon Dean offered a course in “Vermont History and Folklore”. The course was designed for local teachers and met for fifteen weeks. It was offered through the University of Vermont Extension Service. Teachers could earn two hours of college credit. People from the community were also able to enroll in the local history class. The course was held in the evenings at the Powers House on Green Street, next to the elementary school. At the time, Powers House also served as the Superintendent’s office. A product of the course was a booklet of articles researched and written by the class attendees. The publication was called “Bridge To Yesteryear: Vermont Folklore Articles” and contained fifty pages of stories by twenty four authors. One of the articles was written by Ruth Atkinson, a local junior high science teacher. Here is her 1951 article, “Brattleboro Trees”. “In the beginning there […]

Mary Wilkins, famous author

In 1867, shortly after the Civil War, Mary Wilkins’ family moved to Brattleboro. She was 15 years old. Her family had left Randolph, Massachusetts because her father was in the building trades and New England was suffering through a recession after the war. Many of New England’s agricultural and factory jobs were moving west with the railroads and people were moving with them. There was no demand for new housing. In fact, many New England communities lost population after the war. Warren Wilkins moved to Brattleboro to start a new profession. With a partner, he opened a dry goods store where the River Garden is presently located. The business was called, “The New York Store” and it focused on dry goods such as cloth and ready-made clothing. Unfortunately for the Wilkins’, many people in Brattleboro still made their own clothes, or had a local seamstress make them, so going to a store and purchasing already […]

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 […]

Eleanor Roosevelt, Putney School and Integration (1956)

In June, 1956 Eleanor Roosevelt traveled from Hyde Park, New York to Putney, Vermont in order to give the commencement address for the Putney School. Mrs. Roosevelt wrote in her daily newspaper column that the road to Putney “goes through the mountainous countryside-not very high mountains, but friendly, small ones-heavily wooded, with many streams rushing down beside the road, and every now and then a beautiful lake.” Forty nine students graduated from Putney School that year. They came from ten different states, the District of Columbia and three foreign countries. Mrs. Roosevelt had agreed to give the commencement speech because, over the years, many people in her circle of friends had sent their children to Putney. In her speech she asked graduates to reflect on the experiences they had at the Putney School. She said the modern world left little time for going through life without a purpose and she explained that young people should […]

Dr. Grace Burnett (1886-1963)

This week in Brattleboro History we are going to focus on the first female doctor in Brattleboro, Grace Burnett. Miss Burnett was born in West Dummerston in 1886. She grew up around animals and loved horses. She always wanted to be a doctor and was determined to find a way to make this happen. As a young girl she practiced on her pets and farm animals, making medicines and dressing their wounds. She attended a one room schoolhouse, about a half mile from her home, for grades 1 through 9. After 9th grade she then traveled to Brattleboro High School, on Main Street, where she graduated in 1905. In order to pay for medical school she began teaching and performing janitorial duties in the one room school house she had attended in West Dummerston. To make more money, she also worked at the Overall Factory in Brattleboro producing double stitched overalls very popular with the […]

Annie Grout and the AMA (Civil War and Reconstruction)

On October 8, 1846 Lewis Grout was ordained a Congregational minister. On the same day he married Lydia Bates in Springfield, Vermont and the newly married couple traveled to Boston that evening. Two days later they boarded a ship bound for South Africa. Lewis was 31 years old and Lydia was 28. The two missionaries were traveling to Port Natal on the southeastern tip of the African continent. Their goal was to live with the native people and introduce Christianity to the region. The British had been colonizing South Africa for forty years and this missionary effort was part of their campaign. They were looking for marketable resources, a trade route to India, and an opportunity to spread the Christian religion. Two months of sailing brought the Grouts to Cape Town, South Africa. A six week layover in Cape Town acclimated the New England pair to the climate and culture of a different part of […]

Stephen Greenleaf and the Revolution

In April, 1772, Stephen Greenleaf was appointed Justice of the Peace for Cumberland County in the Province of New York. He had recently moved from Boston with his family and purchased 800 acres of land and a saw mill from Samuel Wells. The 800 acres would become the most valuable land in Brattleboro, but 250 years ago the two room home that the Greenleaf family moved into was the only building in the area now known as Main Street. The 800 acres purchased from Wells had originally been the land set aside for New Hampshire’s Governor Wentworth when the town was chartered in 1753. In 1766, after the King of England had declared that Brattleboro was really a part of the province of New York, Samuel Wells traveled to Albany and obtained New York title to the land. In the 1770’s the Great River Road, now Main Street, ran from Fort Dummer to the Wells […]

Gardiner Chandler and the Birth of Vermont.

On March 4, 1791 Vermont officially became the 14th state. How did that happen? There were a few steps involved before Vermont could join the United States. First, New York laid claim to Vermont and opposed Vermont’s petition to join the union. Westminster’s Stephen R. Bradley was one of six negotiators who met with New York’s delegation to resolve conflicts between the two governments. New York demanded compensation for its legal claim on Vermont, and also wanted clear boundaries established between the two states. These negotiations went on for ten months and ended when Vermont agreed to pay New York $30,000 for its land claim. Boundary disputes were also settled and New York negotiators signed a document relinquishing any claim to the lands of Vermont on October 7, 1790. Second, the Congress of the United States met in Philadelphia to consider Vermont’s admission to the union. In order for this to happen, Vermont needed to […]