By STEVEN JUPITER
BRANDON—Thousands upon thousands of people pass by the Brandon Museum every year without noticing it, as they drive through Brandon on Route 7. It’s housed in an unassuming little white cottage next to the Baptist Church, overshadowed by its looming, steepled neighbor. And even among locals the museum has a low profile, with many Brandon residents expressing surprise to learn that it exists.
But it does indeed exist, occupying the house in which Stephen A. Douglas, one of Brandon’s most illustrious natives, was born in 1813. Douglas left Brandon as a teenager and eventually became a U.S. Senator from Illinois, running for president against Lincoln in 1860.
And those that do know the museum often still refer to it as the Stephen Douglas House.
Jennie Masterson, the newly elected President of the museum’s Board, is hoping to change that, building on the work of previous Boards since the museum’s inception in 2010.
“I want to see the museum become a true community resource,” she said recently at the museum. “Douglas is certainly important but there’s so much more to Brandon history. We want to be more than the place people go on field trips in elementary school and feel like they don’t need to come back to.”
Masterson took the position this fall, after three years on the museum’s board
“I was asked to join the Board in 2020,” she said. “I was looking at retirement and realized I had the time. And I have a real interest in local and Vermont history.”
The position of board president became vacant in July, when Steven Jupiter (the author of this article) stepped down after a tenure of a year and a half. An interim president (Harmony Van Eaton) filled the position until the board elected Masterson last month.
“Harmony did a terrific job, but she had only meant to step in temporarily,” said Masterson. “I was honored to be elected and am really looking forward to continuing our work with the community.”
Masterson comes to the position having retired from a 24-year career with the Department of Aging and Independent Living in the Vermont Agency of Human Services (VAHS), where she was a State-Supported Employment Coordinator & Quality-Assurance Auditor, making sure that disabled Vermonters receive the services they need to lead integrated lives. Before VAHS, Masterson was a Manager of Supported Employment at the Counseling Service of Addison County. She grew up in Brandon and worked for a period in the 1970s at the Brandon Training School, which closed in the 1990s.
“My family has roots in the Lincoln/Ripton area going back seven generations,” she said. “We moved to Brandon from Bristol when I was a year old. I have lots of memories of Brandon in the 60s and 70s, of my older sisters’ antics around town.”
“Through the 1980s, it was a very active place,” Masterson continued. “The town was full every weekend. A lot of young people moved to the area from around the country. There were always jobs to be had at the Training School. In the 1990s, after the Training School shut down and the internet changed shopping habits, a lot of stores closed and it got a bit quiet. But things have definitely picked up over the last several years. The Segment 6 revitalization is beautiful, and the town still has an authentic feel.”
Over the last few years, the museum has emerged from a dormant stretch, expanding its offerings and reach, coinciding with the community’s emergence from COVID and the museum’s own 10-year anniversary.
One of the initiatives the museum has undertaken is an exhibit on Thomas Davenport, who received the first American patent for an electric motor, which he invented in Forest Dale in the 1830s.
“We debuted the Davenport exhibit at the Davenport Electric Fest last summer and hope to find a place to keep it open to the public in the winter,” said Masterson (the museum is closed from October through May). “One of our previous presidents, historian Kevin Thornton, uncovered new material on Davenport’s life for the exhibit and Dave Hammond of the Physics Department at UVM made us a replica of one of Davenport’s motors.”
The museum also sponsored a lecture on Vermont in cinema, an “Artifacts Roadshow” in which archaeologists from Vermont State University-Castleton appraised people’s artifacts, and a lecture on local geology. The museum worked with the National Bank of Middlebury on the bank’s local-history display at its new location on Park Street. A museum website has been designed and will go public within the next several months.
One of the projects closest to Masterson’s own heart is the transfer to the museum of the state’s archive of materials relating to the Training School, an institution that loomed large in town for almost 100 years.
“We need to start seeing ourselves beyond this physical building,” said Masterson. “The museum itself is small, but we can be bigger than the space.”
At the museum are displays on the history of Brandon from its earliest days, with an emphasis on architecture and politics. The museum also has an extensive collection of historical photographs, ephemera, newspapers, and objects.
“We need to get more of our collection out where the public can see it,” Masterson noted.
Masterson also expressed gratitude for all the support she’s gotten from others at the museum.
“We’ve had really good presidents and board members,” she said. “But the museum really couldn’t function without our steward, Pat Wood, and all the amazing volunteers that keep the place going. They give up a lot of their personal time to help the museum achieve its goals.”
“Jennie’s election as president is exactly what I hoped would eventually happen when I left,” said Steven Jupiter, former museum board president and author of this article. “She’s a local history buff with great organizational skills. What more could you ask for?”
Board member Ken McFarland wrote in an e-mail, “Serving on the board with Jennie has given us all a great awareness of the energy and initiative she will bring to a leadership position. She’s a Brandon native with an awareness of the history of this town that few can match. Jennie is the ideal person to carry us forward.”
“The museum board was 100% in agreement that Jennie is the right person to lead the museum. She has been doing great work and we are looking forward to seeing what her unique perspective brings to our museum and the Brandon community,” said Harmony Van Eaton, who is now stepping down as interim president.
Masterson doesn’t see history as something distant and musty. History is being made at this very moment—through the lives being led by its current residents—and she sees it as the museum’s mission to make sure that posterity will understand who lived here and what they did.
“I really want to take the time now to document and record as much history as we can, both past and present,” she said. “For the future and for the town of Brandon.”
