A field-use trail guide for the Greenbank’s Hollow Nature Trail is available at the Historical Park. However, the following description contains added detail and photos (click on photos and figures to enlarge). Even so, this is a work in progress as more information will be included as it becomes available.
Examples of things to come:
Lists, descriptions and photos where appropriate, of plants and animals found here along the trail or surrounding area, including birds, mammals, amphibians and reptiles, and insects, as well as other biota such as fungi and archaea.
Detailed descriptions and location (map) of the soils present here, including their suitability for supporting plants, etc.
Information related to Joe’s Brook including seasonal flow data, water chemistry, suitability for fish habitat, and historical use of water power.
Additional geological details concerning the origin, formation and characteristics of the bedrock beneath the Park.
The influence of the bedrock and the last glaciation on the shape of our landscape and the soils that blanket it.
THESETTING:
Joe’s Brook as it comes tumbling down just below the bridge.
A History of the Bank of Caledonia and Caledonia National Bank By Patty Conly, President of the Danville Historical Society Imagine what life must have been like for the early…
The Fort Pillow Massacre Proves the lie of this childish notion By Gary Farrow, Danville Historical Society Danville North Star April 23, 1864 The Fort Pillow Massacre Washington, April 16…
By Sharon Lakey, Danville Historical Society Senior Brett Elliott was out of luck when working out his final year’s schedule at Danville High School—no more history courses were offered at…
Union Brigadier General Hugh Judson Kilpatrick had big plans and even bigger dreams. In desperation, Lincoln approved a raid by the 1st Vermont Calvary upon Richmond that even the Commander of the Army didn’t support. It was a star-crossed venture with consequences that no one could foretell.
March 19, 1864 Danville North Star
DEATHOFCOL. DAHLGREN
Colonel Ulric Dahlgren
The following is the article in the Richmond Sentinel of the 5th, announcing the death of Col. Dahlgren: “The gallant Dahlgreen is dead. After leaving Richmond, he proceeded with a portion of his men toward the peninsula through the country of King and Queen, where he met Lieut. Col. Pollard of the 9th Virginia, and had a sharp encounter, in which Col. Dahlgren was shot dead. Some seventy or eighty of his men were captured. The remainder has joined Kilpatrick as has been already stated. Col. Dahlgren was one of the bravest men of America, and his death will be regretted by all who ever knew him. He had lost a leg in the service and had just arrived at that period of convalescence when he could take the saddle, when he was cut down by war’s relentless hand.
Upon his person were found an address to his men and a memorandum of the route he was to take with his command, when he left Kilpatrick, where he was to go, what he was to do, when he was supposed to be there, and when he was to rejoin the main force.
The address to his men is a most spirit-stirring and patriotic appeal to his sympathies and valor on behalf of their fellow soldiers who are suffering imprisonment in the loathsome dungeons and upon the desert islands of the Confederacy. He begs them not to falter or flag, but to follow him to open prison doors and putting arms into the hands of their released brethren, they would march together to kill Davis and Cabinet, and then return home to their friends, ready and anxious for further deeds of valor.”
Later accounts represent that there is no doubt that the pretended address said to have been upon the person of Col Dahlgren was a bold forgery. This deception was necessary to excuse the brutality with which his body was treated. He was a brave, spirited young officer, and nothing but the fear his true chivalry inspired could have induced the cowardly revenge gratified in the abuse of his lifeless remains.
“Until I began to compile lifelong information, I didn’t realize the full range of gifts Meg was giving to others throughout her life, without the slightest wish for praise.” Charles A. Robinson, 2013
Meg shares the joy at the dedication of the stained glass window she commissioned for the Danville Congregational Church, dedicated to mother, Eva Crane Goff, in 1988.
On July 2, 2013, a mystery came to an end in Danville: our anonymous donor passed at 88 years of age in Pennsbury Township, Pennsylvania, and the requirement of her anonymity was lifted. It is with humility and pleasure that I relate some of what I have learned about this remarkable woman, Meg Robinson. Much of this knowledge comes to us through her husband, Charles, who has graciously answered questions and, as a good historian himself, provided documentation of the important events of her life.
A complicated family and mental illness pushed and pulled a man who became one of the most accomplished generals in the Civil War.
Sherman’s Meridian campaign was a practice run for his march-to-the-sea.
The news was slow in February ’64: Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation decree, freeing slaves only in rebel states, had become law January 1, but its true consequences had yet to be determined; the winter months had closed down the war in Virginia and reports from the eastern-centric press about events in the lower South, absent some epic battle, continued to be spotty. However, there was a minor campaign in mid-February against a town in Mississippi that helped cement the improbable rise of a Union commander. His relationship with U.S. Grant would catapult him to become the General and Chief’s co-architect and collaborator in a new military strategy that was waged against the South.
By Patty Conly, Director of the Danville Historical Society
Image Above: For-Clifs barn in the middle of North Danville village. PHOTOCOURTESYOFSUSAN (LANGMAID) LYNAUGH
There is a unique charm about the quaint and picturesque village of North Danville, nestled in the northeastern corner of Vermont. It has remained essentially unchanged in many ways for the past century. Just ask anyone who lives there presently or has lived there at any time in the past. Some of the faces and names have changed, but their memories and legacy remain through friends and relatives still living in the community. There is a strong sense of willingness to help one another that has endured generations of families living in the village, as well as those living in houses or on farms on the outskirts of town. North Danville was once bustling with mills and businesses centered around its prime location on the Sleepers River, which runs parallel to the lower part of the village. Today most of those businesses are no longer in existence; however, several long-standing family owned farms are still thriving.
The name Langmaid has been associated with farming in this area for many generations, and their family farms continue to dot the landscape in and around Danville. But, there is a unique character about the Cliff Langmaid farm, now known as the For-Clifs farm in the heart of North Danville. It was renamed to reflect current owner Cliff Langmaid and his father and former owner, Forrest Langmaid. The uniqueness lies in the fact that it is a working farm situated right in the center of the village. You simply cannot pass through the North Danville without noticing the big red barn.
Clif Langmaid, Lee (Langmaid) Beattie and Plynn Beattie. PHOTOBYLIZSARGENT
In the summer months, as you approach from Danville and make the turn heading into the village, you will likely see the emerald green hillside pasture dotted with black and white Holsteins grazing in the field amid yellow dandelions. If you happen to drive through around milking time, you may have to wait patiently as Plynn Beattie or Lee Langmaid Beattie act as temporary “traffic control cops” to stop cars and direct a parade of cows sauntering across the road making their way to the barn. This is a less familiar scenario now in many small towns across Vermont and the Northeast Kingdom. However, it is still a rare find in the epicenter of North Danville!
Black fugitives forging the Rappahannock river.
Civil War history often gives short shrift to the fact that the conflict precipitated the largest refugee crisis ever seen on the American continent. Before we read Danville’s North Star reports for January of 1864, it is necessary to understand how the Union was handling the freedmen problem that was created by Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation on Sep 22, 1862.
The Proclamation declared that if a rebel state did not return to the Union by January 1, all slaves would become free. However, slaves did not wait until the beginning of the year; they began streaming toward Union lines and the refugee crisis was on. One reporter wrote, “There were men, women and children in every state of disease or decrepitude often nearly naked with flesh torn by the terrible experiences of their escape.” But if ex-slaves thought they had a better life, they were often mistaken. “Often the slaves met prejudices against their color more bitter than they had left behind.”
Come join Hollis Prior and Dave Houston on Sunday, January 12 at 1:00, to help celebrate and honor the work that has been done at the historic park in Greenbank's…
