Vermont has a national reputation for progressive politics with an emphasis on individual freedom. But there have been eras in Vermont’s past, even within living memory, when the state itself took actions that seemed to run completely counter to today’s commitment to civil rights.
Tag: Vermont History
Names lost in Vermont, Part 30: Rivers and Baker
Non-flood-related question: how many Rivers were there in Vermont a century ago? Over 250 individuals carried the Rivers surname, several dozen of whom lived in Rutland and Addison counties.
Names Lost in Vermont, Part 29: Murray and Adam
On May 17, ten students from OVUHS and their advisor, Chas Hall, spent the morning at the Pittsford Congregational Church fulfilling their community service day.
A visit to the historic Vail House in Sudbury: ‘the most elegant house in Vermont,’ is a step back in time
New England offers some excellent opportunities for time travel. The region is full of historic sites that take you back to days gone by, places where you can get a glimpse of how life was for those who lived here in the earliest years of the United States.
Names Lost in Vermont, Part 28: Gearwar
Thirty-five years ago, when Barry Gearwar appeared on my student rolls at Otter Valley Union High School, I encountered a surname I had never seen before. With good reason: the index for the 1900 census shows only one family group, for the entire country, with the Gearwar name living in Lamoille County.
Lost Names, Part 27: Gilbar, Gilbert, Bushee, and Cornstock
Several years ago, Roberta (Wright) Mills of Florence asked me to explore the genealogy of her great-great-grandfather Eli Gilbar to see if we could find any evidence of Native American ancestry. While no traces of Native American forebears have yet surfaced in this family, Eli nonetheless emerged as opportunity to investigate another lost French-Canadian surname.
Lost Names in Vermont, Part 26: Turner
At the conclusion of Pittsford’s Memorial Day Parade, I enjoyed a catchup conversation with former colleague Pat (Parker) Carter, who taught for 40 years at Leicester School. You could have set your watches by us in our early morning commutes to our respective schools as I was usually one car-length ahead of her on Route 3.
Names lost in Vermont, Part 25: Geno and Yando
While on a seek-and-find mission for Loso gravestones in St. Dominic’s Cemetery in Proctor [Lost Names, Part 24], I photographed two other stones that propelled me to dig deeper into the identity of two women whose families belonged among other lost French-Canadian names.
Names Lost in Vermont, Part 23: Memoe and Cross
In our last installment, I remarked how many Québec families who settled in our area came from St. Hyacinthe, about sixty miles north of the Vermont border. Although I did not anticipate it with this next family, here is another instance of the same migration path.
Names Lost in Vermont, Part 22: Marcy, Burch, and Mosher
You may wonder, after 21 installments of this series, why there is always another investigation in the wings. As I continue to document Vermont families born in Canada East before the Civil War, I continue to encounter names that need exploration.