Eleventh in a series on Brandon’s historic buildings
By JAMES PECK
Brandon has had its share of famous Vermont individuals, including Stephen A. Douglas and Thomas Davenport. They get most of the attention, due to their prominence on the national stage.
But another man, Ebenezer Jolls Ormsbee, deserves our attention almost as much, as a Civil War hero and the 41st Governor of Vermont, and a man of impact who lived in the heart of Brandon longer than Douglas and Davenport combined.
Governor Ormsbee House
The house at 24 Park Street, now the Vermont Folk Art Gallery and next to what is now the 22 Park Eatery, was where the Governor lived for 50 years, from 1874 to his death in 1925. When a Governor owns a house, that house is often named after him. So it is with the 24 Park house—it’s known as the “Governor Ormsbee House,” now listed in the National Historic Register as part of the Brandon Village district of 245 buildings.
The NHR describes the house as follows:
“Gov. Ebenezer Ormsbee House. 24 Park Street. 1 ½ story, clapboarded, framed, gable-roofed, simple cottage with deep eaves. On the west elevation is a wing with a bracketed porch across the front (south) elevation and a polygonal bay window on the west elevation.”
There’s no historical sign on the house, so tourists and Brandon natives walking by today do not know its significance. It’s just another unassuming colonial style cottage. Most see it as the nice art gallery that it is—the Vermont Folk Art Gallery, a showcase for the art of renowned Brandon artist Warren Kimble, Robin Kent, and Medana Gabbard. Kimble, now 90, lives in the brick house next door at #26.
Before Ormsbee
By 1874, the house already had over 50 years of history. Built sometime between 1822 and 1825, it was the “village house” of Horace Parmenter, son of Nathan Parmenter, one of Brandon’s earliest settlers. In 1851, Luman C. Scott bought it and his name appears by it on the oldest map of Brandon in 1854. Scott was a tailor in the Parmenter’s building just a few doors to the west on Park Street.
Scott sold the house and lot in 1864 to Nahum P. Kingsley, a rich merchant who then owned the business block at the corner of Center and Park. On the 1870 census, he is listed at 24 Park with $29,000 in assets, a goodly sum for back then (approximately $711,000 today), though nowhere near richest man in town, entrepreneur and banker John A. Conant with $318,000 (approximately $7,800,000 in today’s dollars).
Captain Ormsbee in the Civil War
Ebenezer “Jolls” Ormsbee was born in Shoreham in 1834, was educated at the Brandon Academy and became a lawyer in 1861. He enlisted in the “Allen Greys,” a Brandon militia company, just as the war broke out and was quickly commissioned as a second lieutenant. In 1862, he was promoted to captain in Company G of the 12th Vermont Regiment. He saw action in the Washington, D.C. area and at the Battle of Gettysburg, then was mustered out in July of 1863.
Ormsbee’s younger brother Charles was also a captain in the war and he was killed in Virginia at the Battle of the Wilderness on May 5, 1864 along with Captain George Davenport, son of the famous inventor Thomas Davenport, and three other Brandon volunteers—Pvt. Robert Hudson, Pvt. William Cronan and Corp. Jasper Fales. The names of all five are on Brandon’s Civil War Monument.
Both Captains, Charles Ormsbee and George Davenport were buried on the Wilderness battlefield for weeks. Finally, their remains were brought home by Ormsbee’s widow, Frances Wadhams “Frankie” Davenport, who travelled down to Virginia and persistently searched for their graves.
Meanwhile, Jolls Ormsbee, now a rising lawyer in Brandon, lost his first wife in 1866. While grieving her death and that of his brother, he found consolation in sharing his grief with Frankie Davenport, marrying her in 1867.
For the full story of Frankie’s quest to bring her husband home and her subsequent marriage to Jolls Ormsbee, the fantastic film “Death in the Wilderness” by local historian, Dr. Kevin Thornton, is highly recommended and available at Carr’s Gift Shop.
In 1874, Jolls and Frankie Ormsbee bought the house and lot at 24 Park Street from Nahum Kingsley for $5,000 (approximately $122,000 today). The year before, they had adopted their daughter Carrie.
Vermont Governor
In 1870, Ormsbee had been elected State Attorney for Rutland County, serving four years. He was also Brandon’s town representative for three years and a state senator for three more, gaining in popularity as a Republican. In 1884, he was elected Lieutenant Governor, then Governor in 1886.
Both Jolls and Frankie were instrumental in ensuring that Brandon’s Civil War dead were properly memorialized. Jolls organized and founded the C. J. Ormsbee Post of the G. A. R. (Grand Army of the Republic), which was composed of veterans, met monthly and conducted the annual Decoration Day (now Memorial Day) exercises of remembrance.
In 1886, Jolls Ormsbee spearheaded the erection of Brandon’s Civil War monument in the triangle in front of his home, though he had first wanted it put by the Congregational Church. He was the President of the Day for the large dedication ceremony on May 29, 1886.
Each year, the G.A.R. oversaw the Memorial Day exercises which always culminated at the monument. Flowers were strewn around the monument, at first by the uniformed G.A.R. officer of the day, but around 1902, by young Brandon girls dressed in white. According to Dr. Thornton, it was most likely Frankie Ormsbee who started this Brandon tradition, still conducted each year.
In 1875, Frankie had also helped form the Brandon Citizens and Soldiers Association also to make sure Brandon remembered its lost soldiers.
Jolls Ormsbee was a great orator and would deliver the Memorial Day address each year and speak at many important Brandon events, including the 4th of July, a visit from President Teddy Roosevelt in 1902, and the dedication of the Stephen A. Douglas Monument in 1913.
The Governor always wore one of his trademark Derby hats, one of which survives today in a private collection.
Death of the Ormsbees
Frankie died in 1916 at 88 and the Governor at 89 in 1924. The house then went to their daughter Carrie who already lived there. Carrie was a Smith College graduate with a degree in German and Art, studied music in Germany, then practiced as an orthopedic nurse.
Carrie Ormsbee became a public speaker and was prominent in town, often giving lectures on erudite subjects at the library across the street. She divided the house into two apartments, renting one to a dry cleaner and his wife and living in the other.
Unfortunately, Carrie became progressively mentally ill, diagnosed as manic depressive, and didn’t get the help she needed. In 1936, she committed suicide in the house by drinking Lysol at age 63.
Other Owners
In 1937, the house then went to a cousin, Edgar “Cap” Jolls Wiley, the director of admissions and personnel at Middlebury College. He made $3,800 in that position in 1940, one of the highest salaries in town at the time (approximately $87,000 today). The Wileys lived there only a dozen years before moving to Middlebury.
The next owner was a widow named Helene Luther, who continued renting an apartment there.
In 1963, Leon and Una Gay bought the house, moving from 28 Park, only two doors away. When they auctioned off the many contents of #28, they stated that they had “given up the burdens of a fourteen-room residence and have purchased a smaller ‘all in one floor’ home.
Leon Gay was a historian at heart, but had been in politics before moving to Brandon in 1952. He was the town rep from Cavendish and the state senator from Windsor County. He then became the President of the Vermont Historical Society and very active in Brandon’s society. In 1961, Leon was the chief editor of “Brandon, Vermont—A History of the Town” which covers the town’s first 200 years of history. This book is available at the Brandon Museum.
The Gays lived at #24 until their deaths in 1972 and 1975. In 1976, the house was sold out of Leon’s estate to a couple who quickly flipped it, then that buyer sold it in 1984 to Warren and Lorraine Kimble.
Of course, most in town know Warren and Lorraine. Warren is the most renowned artist in town, as all know. According to Warren, the Kimbles have owned 19 separate properties in town, both residential and commercial, the latest being their current residence at 26 Park, next door to the Ormsbee House.
In 1987, Warren sold 24 Park to real estate broker Hanford Davis, who set up his office there for the next 31 years. He was very prominent in Brandon.
In 2018, Davis sold the house to Medana and Karl Gabbard and it became the Vermont Folk Art Gallery. Today, it exhibits Medana’s art as well as that of Warren Kimble and Robin Kent. Tucked in a corner is an old photo of the Ormsbee family—Carrie, Jolls, and Frankie—sitting on the porch around 1910, a small reminder of the house’s history.
