Home Vermont
Category:

Vermont

Old South Church in Windsor, Vt., Listed on National Register of Historic Places

by
On March 29, 2024, Old South Church was listed individually on the National Register of Historic Places at the National Level of Significance by the United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service.
The church will host an open house starting at 6 p.m. on Monday, June 17th. This event will include a presentation on the story behind the nomination at 7 PM by Architectural Historian Lyssa Papazian. Lyssa will be joined by Timber Framer Jan Lewandoski who will share some insights on the frame of Old South Church, as designed and erected by Master Builder Asher Benjamin (1773-1845).
The nomination, prepared by Lyssa Papazian, states, “As the first in Vermont and the fourth in New England, as well as the only Asher Benjamin designed and built example of this frame Type III church, the Old South Church is an exceptionally important prototype of the church type that would soon be used throughout New England. The Old South Church is also exceptionally valuable for the study of Asher Benjamin and his influence on the architectural development of New England and beyond through both his books and his architecture. It is significant as the work of a master of national significance.”

Restoring Old South

The Old South Church congregation is planning for the care and repair of the church as well as its mission to serve the greater Windsor, Vt., area for the next 100 years. This effort builds on a significant tradition of building this large church to serve a growing population in 1798. There were substantial changes in the church in 1844 indicative of changing worship practices and greater social interaction in faith communities. The church underwent a Colonial Revival restoration effort in 1922 as well, placing it solidly in the values of the early 20th century to honor American building traditions. The program will be an opportunity to learn about the National Register nomination process and the current planning effort.
After the program, from 8:00-8:30 PM, refreshments will be served.
Everyone is welcome. This event will be free of charge, and donations to the restoration fund for the church building are welcome. The first floor of the church is wheel-chair accessible, and the program will take place in the parish hall. The sanctuary is accessible via stairs and a stair glide.

Attend Virtually

To stream the meeting scan the QR Code or visit the Zoom link:
To stream, scan QR code:
 Or type the Zoom link into your browser: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89693959620?pwd=WnBlQjF2WTZoZFdqU0drQXpUL1I3dz09
The nomination to the National Register and this public educational program have been financed in part with federal funds from the Certified Local Government (CLG) program from the National Park Service, Department of the Interior, through the Vermont Division for Historic Preservation. This program receives federal funds from the National Park Service. Regulations of the U.S. Department of the Interior strictly prohibit unlawful discrimination in federally assisted programs on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, or handicap. Any person who believes he or she has been discriminated against in any program, activity, or facility operated by a recipient of federal assistance should write to: Director, Office of Equal Opportunity, National Park Service, 1849 C Street, NW, Washington, DC 20240.”
The CLG grant was sponsored locally by the Town of Windsor and its Design Review/Historic Preservation Commission with matching funds and in-kind services from the Old South Church, donors to the project, and Historic Windsor, Inc.
For more information:
Attention: Tom McGraw
Phone: (802) 909-2741
0 comments 2K views
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail

Hildene, The Family Home Robert Todd Lincoln Wished He’d Grown Up In

by

In 1975, Robert Todd Lincoln’s Vermont mansion, Hildene, was falling into ruin. Its last owner, Abraham Lincoln’s great granddaughter, Mary Beckwith, had died in July. She had had little interest in her Lincoln legacy, asking, “Why should anybody be interested in all this old stuff we’ve got around the house?”

Mary Lincoln Beckwith

Backwith had inherited an eccentric nature from her great-grandmother, Mary Todd Lincoln. She bought three airplanes, kept small wild animals in the house and ran errands in town wearing overalls, which did not flatter her rotund figure. She never married or had children, and she grew into a recluse.

She left the mansion to the Christian Science Church, including 400 acres. The church couldn’t afford to renovate the property, but a nonprofit stepped in, bought the estate and preserved it.

Mary had a brother, Bob, the president’s last descendant and a self-described spoiled brat. Bob inherited all his sister’s personal papers and Lincoln relics. He decided to let scholars see for the first time the news clips and legal briefs his grandfather collected.

Robert Todd Lincoln

Robert Todd Lincoln was the only Lincoln child to outlive his mother. He had fallen in love with Vermont as a 20-year-old. He, his mother and his brother Tad had visited the state to escape the Washington, D.C., summer.

Robert had succeeded in life, having served as U.S. Secretary of War, minister to Great Britain and president of the Pullman Railroad Co. He’d gotten very, very rich, and he could easily afford to build a gentleman farm in the Battenkill Valley.

Robert Todd Lincoln as Secretary of War

But he believed he lived under a curse. He’d lost his father and three brothers. His only son, Abraham Lincoln II, had shown great promise but died at 16.  His daughter Jessie Beckwith lived a life filled with scandal. And he’d had close connections to three presidential assassinations.

Robert was at his father’s side when he died. Years later, as Secretary of War, he stood 40 feet away from President James A. Garfield when an assassin fatally shot him. Then he happened to visit the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo when President William McKinley was shot there. He visited the wounded president at his bedside.

But his mother’s problems probably caused him the most unhappiness.

Mary Todd Lincoln

Mary Todd Lincoln for many years had suffered from migraine headaches, depression, eccentricity and angry outbursts. She also liked to spend money, and psychiatrists today think she may have had bipolar disorder.

insanity-file-mary-todd-lincoln

Mary Todd Lincoln during the White House years.

As a widow, Mary often fell into severe depression. She seemed delusional at times, and she spent money extravagantly while badgering people for more. Robert agonized over what to do with his troubled mother. Finally he had her declared insane and committed to the Bellevue Place sanitarium in Batavia, Ill.

Mary managed to engineer her release, and then publicly trashed Robert. She called him ‘the monster of mankind.’ They remained estranged until shortly before her death in 1882.

MTL Insanity File

When Robert’s last surviving grandson, Bob Beckwith, let researchers into Hildene to poke around, they found that Robert had destroyed many of his papers.

But in a small closet in his bedroom, he’d stashed a cache of legal documents, newspaper clippings and letters, which he labeled “MTL Insanity File.” Surprisingly, the Insanity File contained more letters critical of Robert Todd Lincoln than sympathetic to him. The letters reveal a tortured son rather than a monster of mankind and a pitiful, distressing mother.

Today, you can see the closet where Robert stored the MTL Insanity file. You can also see some of the Lincoln family papers in a small museum at Hildene on the second floor.

Hildene

The mansion today appeals to people with several different interests: history, architecture, landscaping, farming and nature.

As visitors approach Hildene, they may notice a square mowed into the grass. It indicates the size of Abraham Lincoln’s Kentucky cabin. That would have mortified Robert, who felt ashamed of his father’s humble background.

Docents greet visitors outside the home and give a short overview of the mansion. People are then free to take a self-guided-tour of the first and second floors of the 24-room house. They include Robert Todd’s library and bedroom, his wife Mary’s bedroom, the kitchen and servants’ quarters. Only the Lincolns owned the house, so most of the furniture is original.

One guest bedroom was left the way it was when Mary Beckwith died, so you can see what the house was like in 1975.

The property includes 13 historic buildings, including the mansion, formal garden, observatory, welcome center, museum store, 1903 Pullman car, a solar powered goat dairy and a cheese-making facility. A tram takes visitors to the three areas of the property, which includes walking trails.

Five Things You’ll Remember About Hildene

Pipe Organ

Inside the house, the sound of the 1908 Aeoian pipe organ fills the air every 15 minutes. The instrument, which has a thousand pipes, was the ultimate home entertainment device for the fabulously rich in the early 20th century. It creates large lush sounds that include soft flute music, trumpet fanfares, a clarinet, a french horn, an oboe, a harp and chimes.

Goats and Alpacas

Gentleman farms were a big thing among the super-wealthy around the turn of the last century. At Hildene, a tram takes you to a small farm where you can pet the goats. The estate functions not only as a tourist attraction, but as an agricultural teaching facility. It has a greenhouse, composting space, vegetable gardens, apple orchards, barn and a cheesemaking room. An 1832 schoolhouse is still used for education programs.

Pullman Car

The luxurious Pullman car on the Hildene property didn’t belong to Robert Todd Lincoln, but he traveled in one like it. It’s a 1903 Sunbeam with Tiffany windows and hand-carved woodwork, a product of craftsmanship rarely seen today. The wood paneling opens to sleeping berths. You can take a tram to see it.

Formal Gardens

The manicured gardens outside the back door offers stunning views of the Battenkill Valley.nestled between the Green Mountains and Taconic Mountains. Hildene also has walking trails that take you over a 600-foot floating boardwalk over wetlands.

Stovepipe Hat

In Hildene’s small museum you can see Abraham Lincoln items, including the top hat he wore to Ford’s Theater and the mirror he looked in before leaving.

Lincoln’s hat

Hildene Surroundings

It’s hard to describe Manchester, Vt., without using the words “quintessential New England” and “charm.” It has the white steepled church, the antique shops, the inns and the taverns. It also has marble sidewalks and Orvis, the family owned mail-order business.

Manchester includes two settled areas: Manchester Village and Manchester Center. In the village is one of Vermont’s last 19th-century grand hotels, the Equinox House. Mary Todd Lincoln and her sons stayed there one summer; so did Ulysses S. Grant.

View from HIldene’s backyard

If you visit…

Hildene is open year round from 9:30 to 4:30 Thursdays through Sundays, closed for Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. Check the website for more details.

The house is mostly wheelchair accessible. A gift shop sells snacks, but you can bring a picnic lunch and eat on the grounds.

Plan to spend 3-4 hours to see everything.

To watch a video, click here.


Images: Pullman car By brewbooks from near Seattle, USA – Robert Todd Lincoln Pullman car, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=51513139. Stovepipe had By brewbooks from near Seattle, USA – Abraham Lincoln's Stovepipe Hat, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=51513163. Hildene gardens By ManchesterView, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=52387889. Hildene backyard view CC0 licensed photo by Seth Goldstein from the WordPress Photo Directory. By Justjoshfunk111 – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=72816574. Hildene angle view by David via Flickr, CC by 2.0. Aeolian pipes by Les Willilams via Flickr, CC by SA 2,0

 

0 comments 3.3K views
6 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail

The Calvin Coolidge Homestead: A President Springs Up in The Vermont Hills

by

It boggles the mind to think of it, but in 1924 the United States was run out of the second floor of a store in Plymouth Notch, Vt. The inauspicious town is the site of President Calvin Coolidge’s birth, his swearing in as president and his summer White House in the year 1924.

The Plymouth Notch buildings now belong to the President Calvin Coolidge Homestead District. The district includes more than a dozen buildings, some mostly original and others restored as closely as possible to the days when Coolidge lived there.

We’ll focus for our purposes on the family store and the boyhood home of a man who made it all the way to the White House by relying on the values he learned growing up on a farm in a small town, the hard work that was second nature to his family and the ethics all of this imbued in him. It may be hard to believe in this day, but the proof is here in Plymouth Notch.

Coolidge Family History in Vermont

Captain John Coolidge was the first Coolidge to settle in Plymouth. Coolidge, born in 1756 in Massachusetts, served in the American Revolution. He used his pay for his service to buy farmland in Plymouth, and established the family in the notch. John was the great, great grandfather of President Calvin Coolidge, and founder of the two family industries: farming and politics.

John’s son Calvin Galusha Coolidge continued the family farm, and also served as a representative in the Vermont House of Representatives and numerous local offices. His son John picked up where he left off.

John Coolidge, father to a president. was a Civil War veteran and dynamic businessman. He served in the legislature and worked as farmer, blacksmith, bricklayer, mason, carriage maker, harness maker, teacher, store owner, banker and insurance broker. He was also one of the founders of the Coolidge Cheese Factory in 1890, which is still part of the Coolidge Homestead.

On July 4, 1872, the little town of Plymouth would have been alive with excitement both in celebration of the nation’s independence and the birth of another baby boy – John Calvin Coolidge, future president of the United States.

From the backhouse to the White House

The building that housed the Coolidge store in Plymouth Notch was built for that purpose sometime prior to 1835. It was a typical two-story store building with a storage wing on the southern side. At the rear of the store, a small house was built some time later. By 1872, the little house at the rear of the store was occupied by John and Victoria Coolidge, parents of the future president.

Coolidge general store

After a few difficult years, the Coolidge family moved into the Coolidge Homestead, a home purchased by the family in 1876. The future president would live here continuously through 1887, when he began schooling at the Black River Academy at Ludlow. Over the next two dozen years Calvin would steadily build a political career in neighboring Massachusetts, progressing from mayor of Northampton to the state senate, the governorship and finally to the office off the vice president of the United States.

But Coolidge stayed in close touch with his roots, returning frequently to Plymouth Notch for vacations and reunions.

August 1923 found Coolidge back visiting his childhood homestead, now home to his father and stepmother, Carrie. Word arrived from Washington, D.C. that President Warren G. Harding had died of cardiac arrest. Coolidge’s father, a notary public, awakened him with the news. John Coolidge also gave his son the oath of office standing in the dining room of his childhood home, the family Bible nearby.

President Coolidge returned to Washington. President Harding had been a very popular president at the time of his death. Scandalous stories and news of his affairs began to leak out afterwards, dragging down his reputation. The situation was tailor made for Coolidge. His reputation had always been that of a dry, no-nonsense New England Puritan, and it carried him to re-election as president in 1924.

In 1927, Coolidge announced he would not seek reelection in 1928. Philosophically, he believed that another four years, which would have left him in office for more than 11 years, was too long for one man to hold power. Personally, he was exhausted. He died in 1933 in semi-retirement at Northampton.

A Summer White House

For one glorious summer, in 1824, Plymouth Notch served as the White House. In that era, Washington was considered too hot to be healthy in summers. Presidents and congressmen routinely left for extended summer recess.

Coolidge decided he would spend the summer recess of 1924 at his family home in Vermont, where his son had recently been buried after an untimely death. His office? The inauspicious second floor of his father’s general store, with a telephone to tend to pressing government affairs.

While there he attended to business and entertained. Industrialists Henry Ford, Thomas Edison and Harvey Firestone were among the guests at  the humble Coolidge homestead. The Secret Service had to camp out in tents.

That the laconic and frugal ‘Silent Cal’ could have emerged from such a hard-working and wholesome place as Plymouth Notch to become president may seem like a fiction. But it happened, and the President Calvin Coolidge Homestead District is proof, complete with a quilt the president worked on himself, furniture he constructed, a video showing him harvesting hay and a grave of a president that is inspiring by its humble nature. It is open seasonally, offering tours and cheese for sale.

The Calvin Coolidge Visitor Center is located at 3780 Rte. 100A in Plymouth, VT. The Aldrich House, the site’s office, is located at 249 Coolidge Memorial Rd. For more information visit the President Calvin Coolidge State Historic Site website.

*  *  *

 

Learn what life was like in the White House for New England’s six presidents. Click here to order your copy today.

 

 

 

 

Photos Courtesy of the Library of Congress

For more information on the history of the buildings at the Calvin Coolidge Homestead District, read its nomination to the National Register of Historic Places. 

0 comments 3.4K views
3 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail

How To Talk Like a Vermonter

by

Bernie Sanders does not talk like a Vermonter. True, he’s not good on his Rs. He complains about “millionaihs and billionaihs,” but that doesn’t give him a Vermont accent. He also pronounces coffee as “cawf-fee” – but he still doesn’t talk like a Vermonter.

Sanders clearly talks like a New Yorker (lower middle class Brooklyn Jewish, actually). The tell is the way he says “Vermont” with an ever-so-slight “tuh” at the end.

Bernie Sanders does not talk like a Vermonter

If Bernie wanted to talk like a Vermonter, he would have to say “Vermon’.”

How To Talk Like a Vermonter

Don’t pay attention to the old Newhart sitcom, either. No one in the show talks like a Vermonter. People in Hollywood lump all New Englanders together, and they couldn’t tell the difference between a bus driver from Cranston, R.I., and a lobsterman from Jonesport, Maine.

Fred Tuttle

If you really want to sound like an old-time Vermonter, find a video of Fred Tuttle. A dairy farmer born in 1919 in Tunbridge, Vt., he decided to run for the U.S. Senate in 1998 because it was easier than farming. Tuttle easily defeated his primary opponent, a flatlander who ran in Vermont because it was easier than running in his home state of Massachusetts. Tuttle then lost to another U.S. senator from Vermont without a Vermont accent, Patrick Leahy.

Five Ways To Talk Like a Vermonter

Five key words can make you sound like Fred Tuttle. Perhaps the most important: Cow. (Vermont does not have more of them than people, by the way.)

Vermonters pronounce “cow’ as “ke-ow.” At least the old male farmers do. University of Vermont professor Julie Roberts says that idiosyncrasy is dying out among everyone else.

Then there’s “fight.” They like to turn the I into OI, so “fight” sounds like “foight.” Another one on the way out, according to Roberts..

Mountain: Vermonters do to the T in mountain what they do to the T in Vermont. They kill it. So the Green Mountains become the “Green Moun’ains.” Unlike Keow and foight, moun’ain and Vermon’ are gaining steam among young people.

Barn. Bernie pronounces this the way a Vermonter would: “bahn.” The flat A, as in most of New England, turns “car” into “cah,” “bath” into “bahth” and “dance” into “dahnce.” Bahn boots, along with winter camouflage, suspenders and hunter’s orange hats, form the basis for many a Vermon’er’s wardrobe.

Hockey: You hear this in the rest of Northern New England, too. It’s “hawkey.” Green Mountain Coffee is Green Moun’ain Cawfee. Good luck finding a Starbucks, though. You might try a maple latte at a gas station.

Beer

One way to practice the Vermon’ accen’ is to order a lot of different kinds of beer (bee-uh).

You can get Heady Toppah from Alchemis’, Hahlan from Hill Fahmstea’ Brewery or Brave Little State from Lawson’s Foinest Liquids.

Many zylophiles consider Vermont the Napa Valley of craft beer.

Noted zylophile Homer Simpson discovered a stash of beer in the Vermont woods when he made the classic observation: “Ah, beer. The cause of, and solution to, all of life’s problems.”

Comedian Rusty DeWees jokes Vermonters don’t measure snow in inches, they measure it in bee-uhs.

Northeast Kingdom

The real, old-time Vermont accent still exists in the Northeast Kingdom — Essex, Orleans and Caledonian counties.

Guildhall, Vt., in the Northeast Kingdom.

The Northeast Kingdom accent is also known as gargling marbles. Older Kingdom dwellers have a distinctive nasal quality in their speech, and they love to elongate vowels. “Cat” might sound an awful lot like “caaat.” “Idea” sounds like “Oideer.”

According to Northeast Kingdom etiquette, Hello is “hoight” and goodby is “boight.” (Hat tip to Charlie and Margaret.) They also follow a back-road waving code. While driving, an approaching vehicle you’ve never seen before deserves a one-finger-off-steering-wheel wave along with a slight nod. A neighbor gets two fingers and a slight nod. Family and close friends get four fingers and maybe even a smile and eye contact. Be careful of the eye contact though, unless you want to engage in a 15-minute truck-to-truck confab on the road. And that would comprise a Vermon’ traffic jam.

Names of Things

So you’ve got your flannel (shirt), your bahn boots and your hunter orange cap and you’ve mastered the back road wave. You’re ready to fit in as a native Vermon’er, also known as a woodchuck.

You have to know certain place names. You pronounce Montpelier as Mon-PEEL-yer, Rutland as RUH-lin, Vergennes as Vurr-JENzz and Bradford as BRED-fud.

If you note the smell of manure wafting from a dairy farm, you might comment on the dairy air. If it were especially pungent, you might exclaim, “Jeezum crow.”

Should you want something sweet, Vermont has sugar on snow during winter – maple syrup poured on snow. It’s one of the five major food groups in Vermon’, along with cheese, beer, bacon and Ben & Jerry’s, according to DeWees. You can substitute a creemee — Vermon’ese for soft-serve ice cream. For a real Vermon’ delicacy, order a maple creemee.

Going shopping for those food items means you’re “makin’ groceries.” You don’t face the same kind of traffic congestion motorists in Massachusetts deal with. Instead of traffic reports, Vermont gets foliage reports.

Finally, a couple of Vermon’ expressions: “Had the radish” means done, exhausted, spent, the condition of the many non-working vehicles that decorate Vermont yards.

What most flatlanders call the basement, Vermon’ers call “down cellar.” And in the winter, Vermon’ers embrace “‘chining,” aka snowmobiling.

Vermon’ers also have some words of wisdom for getting through life: “You can’t make a whistle out of a pig’s tail.” and “A gallon of sap is worth one day’s labor.”


Images: Featured image, “Autumn in Barnet” by Carol Highsmith, United States Vermont Barnet, None. [Between 1980 and 2006] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2011630160/. 1936 Vermont Fair Scene United States Resettlement Administration, Carl Mydans United States Albany Vermont, 1936. Sept. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2017716276/. Cows By redjar – jared benedict – flickr.com (also published on redjar.org), CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=13921. Guildhall By Doug Kerr from Albany, NY, United States – Guildhall, VermontUploaded by Magicpiano, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29774270. Bernie Sanders By Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America – Bernie Sanders, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=87733803. 

Learn how to talk Maine here, To learn how to speak Rhode Island, click here. For New Hampshire, click here. For Boston, click here. And for Connecticut, click here. This story was updated in 2024.

0 comments 6.9K views
10 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail

Theodore Safford Peck, Civil War Hero Who Left No Comrade Behind

by

If you ever visit Burlington, Vt.,  and find yourself wandering around the Lakeview Cemetery, you might chance upon what otherwise at first is an unremarkable grave site. You have to walk directly upon it to notice the government-issued bronze plaque placed flat into the ground. It reads:” THEODORE SAFFORD PECK – MEDAL OF HONOR – BVT MAJ GEN CO H 9 VT INF – CIVIL WAR – MAR 22 1843 – MAR 15 1918.”

Theodore Safford Peck as adjutant general of the Vermont National Guard

Those few words sum up the man’s life. They don’t tell the story of his struggles — rejection by the Army four times, surrender, a coward’s label. And they certainly don’t describe the astounding feat of heroism that earned him the Medal of Honor.

Theodore Safford Peck Enlists, Finally

Peck was born in Burlington on March 22, 1843, the son of Theodore Augustus Peck and Delia Horton Safford. The oldest of the five Peck children, he had two brothers and two sisters. A brother and sister died young.

The 1860 Census lists Theodore’s occupation as a clerk. He probably worked for his father, a druggist in Burlington.

The first shots of the American Civil War were fired on April 12, 1861 at Fort Sumter, S.C. Just under six months later, Theodore Safford Peck enlisted successfully — on his fifth try — in the 1st Vermont Cavalry Regiment, Company K. His rank, quartermaster sergeant, most likely reflected his civilian occupation.

The Battle of Winchester

During his short time with the 1st Vermont Cavalry, the regiment saw action at the Battle of Winchester on May 25, 1862. The battle was a major victory for the Confederates during Stonewall Jackson’s Shenandoah Valley campaign.

Peck won promotion to full quartermaster sergeant on June 27, 1862, and mustered out of the 1st Vermont Cavalry on the same day. He then joined Company S, 9th Vermont Volunteer Infantry Regiment, presumably as a quartermaster sergeant, on July 9, 1862. It’s not clear why he made the change.

‘Almost Imbecility’

The regiment was organized at Brattleboro, Vt. The army then sent it to Washington without any  real formal training, like most newly formed regiments. From there the regiment went to Virginia. Less than a month after its formation, the 9th Vermont retreated from the Shenandoah Valley to Harper’s Ferry, Virginia (West Virginia in 1863).

Dixon Miles at Harpers Ferry

Unluckily  for the regiment, it had a commander who ranked as one of the most useless and incompetent Union Army  officers: Col. Dixon S. Miles. The army had court-martialed him for drunkenness during the First Battle of Bull Run. For some now unfathomable and unfortunate reason, he had orders to defend the vital Harpers Ferry arsenal.

Confronted by Confederate forces under Stonewall Jackson, Miles surrendered his entire force on Sept. 15, 1862. He offered only token resistance. Among those captured: the 9th Vermont and Sgt. Theodore Safford Peck.

A later board of inquiry described Miles’ character:  “incapacity, amounting to almost imbecility [for] the shameful surrender of this important post.”

Labeled Cowards

The Confederates had  marched through Harpers Ferry to Maryland and their ultimate defeat at Antietam. But Jackson had no time to detach troops to guard the huge hoard of Union prisoners. So he paroled them. Parole meant they could return to the Union Army. However, they couldn’t participate in active operations until exchanged for a like number of Confederate prisoners.

Confederate prisoners at Camp Douglas, around 1863

Unfortunately for the regiments that surrender under Miles’ command, people labeled them cowards. Though unfair, as they had no say in Miles’ actions, they nonetheless had to live with the fact.

Unable to take part in active combat, the 9th Vermont and Peck were sent to Chicago as guards for Confederate prisoners at Camp Douglas. Theodore Safford Peck won promotion to full second lieutenant on Jan. 8, 1863. Two days later, the regiment was finally exchanged.

Still not fully trusted, the regiment went to guard Confederate prisoners at City Point, Va. That assignment lasted only a couple of weeks before the necessities of war sent them south to the garrison at Suffolk, Va. There they joined Wardrop’s Reserve Brigade, 7th Army Corps, Department of Virginia.

As soon as the 9th Vermont arrived in the spring of 1863, Gen. James Longstreet’s Confederate forces embroiled them in the Siege of Suffolk, Va. It lasted from April 13 to May 4. The Union Army held the garrison, but Longstreet’s troops had managed to forage for supplies during the standoff.

James Longstreet

After helping raise the siege, the 9th Vermont took part in several small actions.  It then went to New Bern, N.C., remaining in the area for several months and taking part in small actions.

Newport Barracks, N.C.

Near Newport, N.C., the Union Army held a small outpost that guarded a railroad trestle bridge, a key link in the supply routes between East Coast ports and New Bern, N.C. The Union had won the Battle of New Bern in 1862, which enabled it to control the North Carolina coast.

The advance of the Gunboats up the river to New Berne, N. Carolina.

On Feb. 2, 1864, Confederate forces overran the Newport Barracks. Two thousand Confederate infantry, 400 cavalry and 14 artillery pieces outnumbered the 750 Union troops at the barracks. The Union soldiers retreated. Company B and Company H, commanded by 2nd Lt. Theodore Safford Peck, had orders to guard the rear of the retreating forces.

Two bridges over the Newport River formed the only line of retreat for the Union soldiers. They also formed the only line of advance for the Confederates. Lt. Peck had orders to hold the bridges until the Union forces had crossed and then fire them. The Roster of Vermont Volunteers During the War of the Rebellion…Deeds of Valor, describes what happened.

“The left of the Union line lay near the river, while the right was in the woods, and commended (sic) by First Lieutenant Theodore S. Peck Company H, Ninth Vermont Infantry. The line was continually pressed back by the enemy, and made eleven different stands before reaching the Newport River, over which there were two bridges, one a railroad bridge and the other a county bridge…”

No Turpentine, No Cavalry

Peck had been promised turpentine and tar, along with a cavalry contingent to support him, would be waiting at the bridges. They must destroy the bridge at all cost.

“Lieutenant Peck made a desperate fight all afternoon, and had been the farthest out toward the enemy the entire time, holding them in check until they had broken through the line on his left. At this time the Union troops had mostly crossed the railroad and county bridges…while Lieutenant Peck’s rear guard was hotly engaged with the Confederates, who were close at his heels.”

When Peck sent a man to check the bridge, he reported back that he found no supplies to burn the bridge and no cavalry anywhere.

Medal of Honor

“Lieutenant Peck, leaving one-half of his men with their officers, fighting the enemy, ran with the other half down the hill to the bridge, determined to destroy the same, if possible. Finding that some of the planks were not spiked down, he had these torn up, and being fortunate in finding plenty of dry grass…he had the same placed in readiness for burning the bridge, then ordered his men, who were fighting, to stop firing and rush across.

His men instantly obeyed the order, though the enemy came forward on the run, killing and wounding some of them. As soon as the men crossed the bridge they started firing on the enemy, while others ignited the dead grass.

“The Confederates brought up a battery, and poured in grape and canister. In the rush, Sergeant Charles F. Branch was wounded and left behind, a fact which, instantly it became known to Peck, caused him to rush back across the now burning bridge, to the sergeant, and half carrying him in his arms, succeeded, in spite of a shower of bullets and shell and in momentary danger of death…”

They succeeded in destroying both bridges in the face of overwhelming enemy fire. While the river was narrow, it had high bluffs and was deep, and the Confederates could not ford it in time to halt the Union retreat. Then-2nd Lt. Theodore Safford Peck won the Medal of Honor for his actions that day. Peck was promoted to first lieutenant on June 10, 1864, and to  captain on March 11, 1865.

More Fighting

The 9th Vermont remained in the New Bern area until September 1864, when it went north to join Ulysses S. Grant’s army at the protracted siege of Petersburg and Richmond, Va. The siege actions included a formal siege and a series of individual battles. The 9th Vermont fought in several of them. Peck was wounded in action during one battle, the Battle of Fort Harrison.

Fort Burnham, Virginia, the former Confederate Fort Harrison. Federal soldiers in front of bomb-proof headquarters.

The wound must not have been too serious since he remained with the regiment, which then fought in the Battle of Fair Oaks.

Immediately after the battle, it was sent to New York City to guard against possible rioting during the upcoming presidential election. It then returned to the Richmond siege lines and took part in the final assault on the city on April 2, 1865.

Battle of Fair Oaks, by Currier & Ives

Captain Peck marched with the 9th Vermont as one of the first to enter and occupy Richmond.

After performing various occupation duties around Virginia, he mustered out with the rest of the regiment on Dec. 1, 1865.

Marriage and Money

Returning to Burlington, Theodore Peck began a career in insurance, and in 1869 he founded T.S. Peck Insurance. In time, it would grow into one of the largest insurance companies in Vermont. It is still in existence in 2023.

T.S. Peck

Peck was also involved in local businesses and served on the board of directors of several Burlington manufacturing companies.

In 1879, he married Agnes Louise Lesslie from Toronto, Canada, in Manhattan, New York at her uncle’s residence. They had one daughter, Theodora Agnes Peck.

Grand Army of the Republic program for an encampment in 1900

Like most Union Civil War veterans, Theodore Peck remained active in the Grand Army of the Republic. He served as president of the Society of the Army of the Potomac at the time of his death. He belonged to many civic organizations. They included  the Society of Colonial Wars, General Society of the War of 1812, Military Order of Foreign Wars, the Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias, Ethan Allen Club, Algonquin Club and the Lake Champlain Yacht Club. A Freemason, he served as grandmaster of the Vermont Lodge for 10 years.

Later Life of Theodore Safford Peck

Unlike most Civil War veterans, however, Theodore Peck remained a part of the military. From 1881 to 1900 he served as its adjutant general in the Vermont National Guard as a brigadier.

His relationship with the military remained firm. In 1891, President Benjamin Harrison appointed him to the West Point Board of Visitors. He also commanded the Medal of Honor Legion (now the Legion of Valor). And he received an honorary degree  in 1896 from Norwich University in Northfield, Vt., then a military school second only to West Point.

Grave marker of Theodore Safford Peck

After a full and active life, Brevet Maj. Gen. Theodore Safford Peck, Medal of Honor, died on March 15, 1918 in Burlington from heart complications.

William E. Utley has an M.A. in Military HIstory from Norwich University. Theodore Safford Peck is his 3rd cousin, three times removed.

 

0 comments 16.1K views
8 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail

Northern New England Has Gores – Who Knew?

by

There are small numbers of people in northern New England who live in oddly-shaped geographical areas or “gores. ”

They prefer a relatively isolated, rural, existence in seasonal or permanent homes, surrounded by forests, mountains, bodies of water and a few neighbors.  They are willing to pay for limited governmental services funded mainly by the state.

Unlike the southern New England states, incorporated local units of government do not encompass all of the land areas in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.  Various unincorporated entities – including gores – constitute the remaining area.

The Gores of Northern New England

A gore is a piece of irregularly shaped land left over from original surveying efforts in the 18th and 19th centuries to plot town boundaries.  They exist only in Maine and Vermont and may or may not have any residents.

In Maine, somewhat more than half of the total land area of the state is designated as “unorganized territory.”  It consists of 429 unincorporated “townships” and several coastal islands that extend across the 16 counties of the state.  Eight of these townships are gores, located in four counties.  Three of them (Coburn, Gorham, and Massachusetts) are in Franklin County. Three are in Somerset County (Blake, Misery, and Moxie). And there are one each in Lincoln County (Hibberts) and Penobscot County (Veazie).

The Maine Legislature is the “local governing body” for the gores and the rest of the unorganized territory.  It approves the budgets of the state agencies and any counties seeking funds for services derived from a state-administered property tax.  Services provided include waste disposal, law enforcement, fire protection, ambulance services, animal control, road maintenance (except private roads) and land use to limit development.

The Coburn Gore border crossing from the Canadian side.

Maine Gores

Four Maine gores have seasonal and/or permanent residents.   Population counts are difficult to ascertain as the U.S. Census does not provide them.  Moxie Gore has the largest area (19.96 acres) and the largest population (estimated at over 100). It’s known for its waterfall and whitewater rafting opportunities.  Coburn Gore is mainly noted for its U.S.-Canadian border crossing.  Misery Gore has Moosehead Lake for its attraction.  Hilberts Gore has one resident of long duration among its fields and woodlands.

Map of Misery Gore near Moosehead Lake in Maine

Beyond gores, the unorganized territory also includes townships designated by name (e.g. Bancroft) or number (e.g. T13R16WELS) and those termed a grant, island, patent, purchase, strip, surplus or tract.

Vermont Gores

Vermont has four gores:  Avery’s Gore, Warner’s Gore or Grant and Warren’s Gore are in Essex County.  Buels Gore is in Chittenden County.  Only Warren’s Gore and Buels Gore have residents.  In Warren’s Gore, a Board of Governors of the Unified Towns and Gores oversees the gore. It also appoints a supervisor who can act as truant officer, constable, treasurer, tax collector and town clerk.  In Buels Gore, the governor appoints a supervisor.  In both gores, residents pay a state property (education) tax and a municipal tax that can be used for certain assessments or town services (e.g. emergency fire or rescue services).

Vermont also has five unorganized towns – Averill, Ferdinand, Glastenbury, Lewis and Somerset. The Board of Governors oversees them since they lack enough residents to qualify as an incorporated town.

Grout Pond and Glastenbury Mountain

And the Rest…

Historically, New Hampshire also had gores, but none currently exist.  However, it has eight grants, seven townships, six purchases and four unincorporated locations that resemble gores.

Barring a significant upsurge in population leading to annexation by a neighboring town(s) or creation of a new town, these gores will remain as remnants of bygone times.

Edward T. Howe, Ph.D., is Professor of Economics, Emeritus, at Siena College near Albany, N.Y.

Images: Moosehead Lake By Dennis Redfield – originally posted to Flickr as Moosehead Lake, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8733277, and Glastenbury Mountain by Andy Arthur via Flickr, CC by 2.0. Also By Richard Coté – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=34635193. This story was updated in 2024.

0 comments 7.1K views
2 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Newer Posts
Older Posts

Subscribe To Our Newsletter

Join our mailing list to receive the latest artciles from the New England Historical Society

Thanks for Signing Up!