After many months of work, Thaddeus Stevens has been honored in his home state of Vermont by having his likeness hung in the State House. In a lovely ceremony in the historical Cedar Creek room, his portrait was unveiled and celebrated on March 28, 2012.
By Betty Bolevic
Prior to Kate and Harold Beattie relocating our family to the farm in Danville, and when spending an occasional weekend with Grammy McDonald, I would often sit in her large green wicker rocker on the wraparound porch, contentedly drawing with my first box of crayons on the small blank sheets of paper secretly torn from the backs of books.
Years later, sitting in the same spot, I would now and then become momentarily startled, first by the whistle, then the cloud of smoke, and finally the familiar clickety-clack of the freight train gaining momentum as it wound its way toward St. Johnsbury after a stop at the Danville Station to unload goods – some for Delmer Smith’s Danville Grain Store.
I avidly watched the steam engine maneuvering its loaded cars slowly and effortlessly around the bend from the village and across the swampy field adjacent to the front of our house, always in anticipation that this would be one of the rare times it would squeal to a stop and take on water that ran from the spring in Will Findley’s field (currently Mt View Drive) and was stored in a tank within the gray cylindrical wooden tower to the right of the track — a somewhat raucous and lengthy process.
By Gary Farrow, member of the Danville Historical Society
Grant’s victories at Fort Henry and Donelson darkens festivities in the southern capital. The War Department sees peace dawn over Tennessee. Lincoln floats the idea of compensated emancipation. The First Vermont Calvary was itch’n to fight. And despite his success in the field, Grant lands in hot water.
North Star 1 March
General News Items
Jeff Davis, President of the bogus Southern Confederacy, was inaugurated at Richmond, last Saturday. Col Wood (one of the recently returned federal prisoners) was present and says there was no enthusiasm whatever. Not a cheer to be raised.
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According to the eyewitness, the ceremony went flat while a leading southern paper sounded an even darker note.
By Sharon Lakey
“The ideal historian goes to the mouth of the tomb, cries: “Lazarus, come forth!” and sets him that was dead for ages, blinking and passionate, in the sun.”
AUSTIN O’MALLEY, Keystones of Thought
Lance Comfort’s Lazarus is Israel Randall of North Danville, and his attempt to raise him started with a deed he bought on Ebay.
The deed, a time-weathered document, begins with “Know all men by these presents that I Jesse Leavenworth of Danville in the County of Orange and State of Vermont for and in consideration of the sum of thirty pounds lawful money to men in hand paid before the delivery hereof by Israel Randal of Danville…” The deed is dated November 30, 1791.
With deed in hand, Lance began his own historical mystery tour with a series of questions that developed into a conjectured understanding of Israel Randall’s life in Danville. “History is written by the survivors, the winners, those who passed their history forward. If a family didn’t stick around, they do not appear in the history book,” said Lance, pointing to Village in the Hills a history of Danville, Vermont that lay on the table in front of us. A quick check of the index in the book shows no Israel Randall.
However, Randall’s name does appear once in the book—page 24 on the map that is captioned: “Final division of land under Danville’s second charter in 1802 following settlement with New York for ’30,000 rights.’” There, in the tiniest of print, is a plot without a number reading “200A Israel Randall.” The first town charter was granted under New York with the name of Hillsborough; the second charter was granted under Vermont with the name Danville. Village in the Hills describes this confusing process in detail in chapter two. It was a process that Lance believes affected Randall as well as and other earlier settlers. Could Randall have settled first under the Hillsborough charter, then later be made to comply with the second? Lance believes this is likely.
By Gary Farrow, Danville Historical Society
The North Star reported that things were looking up for the North. The Union Navy secured another victory and a bearded, soft-spoken small man from the West appeared on the scene to accomplish what eluded the Union generals who came before. In addition there is a story of “boys being boys” in Brattleboro and Captain R. W. Laird making a trip back home to Danville.
Sword Presentation
Capt. R. W. Laird of Company H., 4th Regiment Vermont Volunteers, was presented with a splendid sword, at Camp Griffin, VA on Jan 20th, as a slight token of high esteem in which he is held by the men of his command, for his energy and untiring zeal in their behalf.
Captain Laird returned to his home in West Danville, last week Thursday. We understand that he has returned with recruiting orders, and will enlist recruits for the Vermont Brigade.
By Sharon Lakey
On a rainy October day, 2011, Dave Houston and Hollis Prior, committee heads for the Greenbank’s Hollow Historical Park, met a busload of Danville second graders at the covered bridge. The children lined both sides under cover of the bridge, eating bagged lunches, and listening to the constant rush of water rolling down Joe’s Brook. Afterwards, they trekked up the hill after David and Hollis to the old school site where the new kiosk stands.
One of the children exclaimed, “My daddy gave the wood for this.” The impressive structure was newly up by the efforts of the Danville road crew, the area groomed and landscaped, surrounded by the foundation stones of the old school. No information was on the kiosk yet, but the whole idea of group of children standing in the middle of the schoolhouse site was historic in itself. After some conversation and questions about its history, the group again fell in behind David and Hollis and moved down to the bridge. There they stood on the spot, imagining the huge five-story woolen mill that used to stand next to the little bridge.
By Gary Farrow, member of the Danville Historical Society
The troops settled in for the first full month of winter. Restricted movement meant that major battles in many parts of the country would have to wait for spring, so the news turned to the more mundane aspects of the war. And, as technological changes (such as the telegraph) sped news to Danville, the town would see and experience a new, richer and more vivid medium that told the story of their age.
Grandiose prognostications shortchange people and their stories. This was never truer than in the border states of Missouri and West Virginia, which were, in their own unique way, microcosms of the larger conflict.
By Sharon Lakey, Director of the Danville Historical Society
Mary Prior was in the Diamond Hill Store, and a man walked in with a tee-shirt proclaiming he was a member of the Thaddeus Stevens Society. Mary, who had been tracking down what she called the “Thaddeus Stevens Trail” for the Danville Historical Society, introduced herself. They had a nice conversation about Danville being his birthplace.
She had already driven a reporter from Burlington’s Seven Days and Howard Coffin around the area, showing them where she thought his birthplace might be. Later, she directed an auto tour with several members of the Society to points of interest in Danville and Peacham to share what she had uncovered. So it was of interest to us last June when Ross Hetrick (the man wearing the tee-shirt) called and introduced himself as the President of the Thaddeus Stevens Society. He wanted to drive to Danville from his home in Pennsylvania with intentions of putting together a video of Thaddeus’s birthplace. With Mary’s preparation, we felt ready for the event. One fine morning we met at the Historical House, ready to follow the footsteps of our most illustrious native son.