Hartford, Vermont was chartered on July 4, 1761. There were 61 original proprietors on the grant by Governor Benning Wentworth. Many of these people lived in Lebanon, CT and journeyed some 160 rugged miles north along the Connecticut River hoping for a better life. Hartford's history mirrors that of the United States. It began as a handful of subsistence farms in the colonial period and became a hub of transportation and industry when the railroads arrived in 1848. To learn more or become a member, please contact the Hartford Historical Society at (802) 296-3132 or email us at info@hartfordhistoricalsociety.org. Our website is http://www.hartfordvthistory.com. The society maintains a collection of local artifacts at the Garipay House in Hartford Village. Please contact us for a tour.
Hartford was brought into existence by a charter executed by Governor Benning Wentworth of the province of New Hampshire. There were sixty-two proprietors and the land was divided into sixty-eight shares including one for Governor Wentworth. Most of the proprietors lived in Connecticut and some sold their grants rather than make the long journey to an unknown place.
Eleazar Wheelock was a minister, teacher, and revival preacher in Lebanon, CT when he received a charter to found a college in Hanover, NH in 1769. Moving to the Upper Valley, he was soon followed by several members of his church who received a charter from Governor Benning Wentworth of New Hampshire in 1761 to create the town of Hartford, VT. Dartmouth College was named in honor of Lord Dartmouth who had been Wheelock's benefactor when he ran a school for Native Americans in Lebanon.
American militias hastily dug trenches and built walls across Bunker Hill and Breed's Hill during the night of June 16, 1775. The next day, British forces in Boston launched a series of attacks. The third British assault succeeded in pushing the Americans from the hills but the British suffered over one thousand casualties compared with 450 for the Americans. On that day in Hartford, Thomas and Ann Hazen were roofing their home after moving from Woodbury, CT. Family tradition says they heard the battle, one hundred and ten miles away. Native Americans in nearby Hanover and Barnard also heard the distant boom of cannon. The Hazen home still stands on Christian Street.
As British troops under General John Burgoyne came down through the Champlain Valley and along the Hudson River in 1777, Hartford's militia drilled in the Center of Town. On August 16, Colonel Joseph Marsh led them to Rutland where they arrived soon after American troops under General John Stark defeated the British at the Battle of Bennington on August 17. Tucker's History of Hartford says that the militia likely joined the American forces along the Hudson River prior to the decisive Battle of Saratoga where, on October 7, American forces defeated Burgoyne in what is considered a turning point in the Revolution. Soon after, France became an ally of America and British forces could no longer count on the loyalty of Native Americans. Tucker lists nineteen men of Hartford and five from Pomfret who received bounties for their service at this time.
The Royalton Raid was a British led Indian attack against settlers in Tunbridge and Royalton. Four settlers were killed and 26 were taken as prisoners to Quebec. Phineas Parkhurst was visiting in South Royalton and escaped on horseback despite being shot. Tradition says the young rider had only a handkerchief for a bridle. He stopped at Stephen Tilden's tavern in Hartford where Tilden fired his rifle to sound the alarm. Joshua Hazen led Hartford's militia to Royalton but the raiders had escaped.
In 1784, Vermont opened post offices in Brattleboro, Bennington, Rutland, Windsor, and Newbury. Mail was delivered to each post office by postriders who visited each town once a week. There was also a route from Bennington to Albany, NY to connect Vermont with other states. TThe first post office was established in the Town of Hartford in 1806. It was located in what was then called White River Village, now referred to as Hartford Village. The first Postmaster was Joseph Dorr, who began his service on July 21, 1806.
In 1777, Colonel Joseph Marsh and Stephen Tilden represented Hartford at a meeting in Windsor to create an independent state in the territory known as the New Hampshire Grants. Mr. Tilden was named to a committee to draft a constitution. The new state was initially to be called New Connecticut but, when the constitution was approved on July 8, the name was Vermont and its capital was Windsor. Vermont elected Thomas Chittenden governor, issued its own money, and established a postal service. At the time, Vermont could not be admitted to the United States because much of the state was still claimed under grants issued by the Governor of New York. So in 1791, the Vermont legislature approved a payment of $30,000 to settle this dispute and, on March 4, Vermont became America’s 14th state.
Freegrace Leavitt married Jerusha Loomis in 1788 and had three children, Jerusha, Arabella, and Harvey. In 1794, the family moved from Hanover, New Hampshire to a stately new home near the Center of Town, which they called “Leavitt’s Inn.” The home still stands across from the site of Hartford’s first meetinghouse, which was built in 1783 and torn down in 1872. The Hartford Historical Society’s collection includes an 1803 sampler by Arabella Leavitt. Freegrace Leavitt became a prominent member of the community and served for many years as an innkeeper, town clerk, distiller, deacon, and overseer of the poor. As deacon of the church, he announced hymns and sounded the opening note on a pipe. Residents gathered at Leavitt’s Inn for refreshment after meetings and religious services. Freegrace Leavitt was elected town clerk in 1802 and served until 1836. In March 1809, he was named an overseer of the poor with Philemon Hazen and Elijah Mason. Leavitt hosted Hartford’s proprietor’s meetings from 1808 to 1819, and his home was the seat of town business until 1840.
The first meeting house in Hartford was built in Dothan. Residents previously met in the home of Thomas Hazen. Eleazar Wheelock, founder of Dartmouth, was pastor of the church in Dothan from 1771 until his death in 1779. Thomas Hazen summoned members to services by blowing into a conch shell.
In 1810, Mills Olcott of Hanover, NH opened two canals with locks that allowed river travelers to sail their flat boats past White River Falls and as far north as Wells River, VT. The falls, and the village to the west, became known as Olcott Falls. The canals remained profitable for Olcott until railroads replaced river travel in 1848.
America went to war with England again from 1812 to 1815. Howard Tucker lists seventeen Hartford residents who formed a company of cavalry and twenty-nine who served in the infantry. Records suggest that some went to Burlington where the Americans had a base, which the British attacked on August 2, 1813. The American Lake Fleet was anchored in Burlington Harbor and cannon were placed along what is now Battery Park. British ships started a cannon duel that lasted a half hour. No ships were sunk and the British withdrew. Unmarked graves and cannon balls are still being discovered in the area.
In the list of Hartford's noted men of the past the name of Luther Pease is conspicuous and resplendent for what he accomplished for the good of the town and his fellowmen. He was a typical son of Vermont, a distinguished member of that class that did so much for the state in the century just ended. Sturdy, industrious, faithful to the smallest trust, and keenly alert to the duty of the hour these men built for Vermont a foundation that is safe, strong and reliable. Mr. Pease was born in the town of Brookfield, November 14, 1814. He obtained a common school education, and then while yet a lad drove an eight-horse team from Hartford to Boston in the transportation of produce and merchandise. Later he engaged in the work of driving boats up the Connecticut River from Hartford, CT to Hartford, VT. Possessing to a marked degree an abundance of that good old New England characteristic called "gumption" he prospered in his life work, and in 1849 became the owner of a hotel in Hartford village, which from that date has borne his name. This hotel he conducted until his death in 1876. Occupying a site in the very heart of the village of Hartford, the attractive and commodious Pease Hotel is modern in its style of architecture, in all its arrangements, and in all it comprehends. It lacks not a single essential of what is desired in either the year round or summer hotel. Broad piazzas, vine clad and flower laden, compass three sides, while spacious and neatly kept lawns add to the charm of the whole. Inside are handsomely furnished rooms, commodious halls, parlors, baths, and every requisite of the best hotel. The dining rooms are especially to be noted for spaciousness, cheeriness, and the possible abundant supply of daylight and sunshine. The plumbing of the house is perfection itself and the kitchen equipment comprehends the latest appliances for the purpose. There is a cold storage room, adjoining ice house, while the water for drinking and household purposes is supplied by a hillside spring. The house is steam heated and electric lighted. It is distant only a three minute drive from the Hartford Station on the Central Vermont road, but a little further to that on the Woodstock Railway, and scarcely ten minutes from the Union Station at White River Junction. The hotel is owned by Horace C. Pease, and is under the management of H.M. Courser who comes to the hotel after a thirty years experience as a landlord in various places. He has had a valued and successful career as the manager of summer hotels and will strive to make the Pease the popular resort it should be. (From The Gateway of Vermont, Hartford and its Villages)
When the railroads came to town in the late 1840s, Samuel Nutt purchased the Grafton House in Enfield, NH and moved it to White River Junction. Renamed the Junction House, it provided food and shelter for travelers for thirty years before burning to the ground. The hotel was rebuilt and owner Nathaniel Wheeler renamed it the Hotel Coolidge in 1923.
Hanover Crackers were so popular by the end of the Nineteenth Century that a box is archived at Dartmouth's Rauner Library. When he first tasted them in 1835, baker Everett K. Smith liked them so much that he leveraged everything and bought the bakery in Hanover where they were made. E.K. Smith made tasty crackers, increased production, and boosted sales. At a time when most business was local, Smith painted his name on a wagon and sent barrels of crackers across the countryside. One stop was Littleton, NH where a resident recalled, "A long wagon with high slatted sides was filled with a dozen huge baskets, some six or seven feet in height, braided square, and each calculated to hold about eight barrels of crackers." Wagons also carried a variety of colorful candies. By 1856, the driver of that wagon may have been George Williston Smith who joined his father's firm at age fifteen after a term at Dartmouth. He left school, learned the business, and found new customers across Vermont and New Hampshire. E.K. and George Smith improved efficiency by bringing large shipments of flour by wagon from New York. They upgraded the ovens and added a horse-powered machine that made crackers in large batches. When the railroad reached White River Junction, carloads of flour passed through on their way to Norwich, VT where the flour was trucked over the river to Hanover. In 1867, George Smith married Chessie Reid and, two years later, they had a son named Robert Everett Smith. George's father made him a partner and the firm was renamed E.K. Smith & Son. In 1871, E.K. Smith & Son moved from Hanover into a modern brick bakery on the corner of Bridge Street and Main Street in White River Junction. Crackers were baked on a steam-powered revolving wheel. The firm employed seven bakers and three salesmen. E.K. Smith retired from active work at the firm. In 1873, George and Chessie moved into a three-story mansion on Church Street. But, in 1876, Chessie died at age thirty-four. George buried her in the Dartmouth Cemetery in Hanover where they attended the Episcopal Church. George's sister Helen moved in to help manage his household. The following year, E.K. Smith died and George became president of the family business, which he renamed the George Smith Company. In 1881, when George turned forty, he founded the White River Paper Company, which is still in business. In 1886, he founded the National Bank of White River Junction. For many years, George Smith employed hundreds of local residents while nurturing local schools, roads, the water system, and fire protection. He played a key role in promoting the Vermont State Fair and helped build the railway spur up to the fairgrounds. In 1884, he led construction of the Hartford High School. George W. Smith remained active until his death in 1905. Then the company, known as Smith & Son, was run by his son Robert E. Smith until his death in 1917 when management passed to his sons. The name of the firm changed once more to Smith & Sons, Inc. and family management continued until the final batch of Hanover Crackers was baked in 1934. One survivor of the once sprawling Hanover Cracker empire is the Tip Top Building in White River Junction that George Smith acquired when he bought the Vermont Baking Company. It sits across Main Street from the site where George and Chessie made their home. After George's death, the house passed to his son and then became a boarding house, known as the Smith House, until it was razed and replaced by a service station. Gone too, is the rail spur up to the site of the Vermont State Fair. But the high school survived, moved and restored as the Hartford Town Hall. Other structures that housed the bank and paper company also remain. But George W. Smith has moved back to Hanover where he rests with his parents and wife Chessie in the Dartmouth Cemetery.
The Barnum & Bailey Circus folded up its Big Top for the last time earlier this year. Protests from animal rights groups and lagging ticket sales led to the demise of this iconic American form of entertainment, but the scenario was very different when the circus came to town on August 11, 1882. Barnum and London Shows, as the circus was called at that time, began advertising its local appearance in early July with a display of over 700 feet of billboard material. Meanwhile, Barnum contracted with the railroads that served this area to transport 55 cars containing everything from personnel to paraphernalia. Thousands of people lined the route to witness a parade of “The Greatest Show on Earth.” No other circus could boast of a larger menagerie of African wild beasts, a finer lineup of elephants or a more complete collection of the gentler animals, such as zebras, llamas, giraffes and camels. In addition to elephants and other exotic animals, the parade included a band, horseback riders, clowns and a large steam calliope. The afternoon performance was attended by 17,000 enthusiastic patrons, and the evening show by 20,000. The undisputed star of the show was the famous Jumbo, looming over all the other elephants at 12 feet in height. The editor of the local paper wrote, “The show was Barnum’s, which accounts for the fact that all that was advertised to be showed, was shown, and all that was advertised to be did was done. No humbug about it. Of the whole thing there was but one voice – ‘the best thing ever seen.’”
Hartford’s first known school convened in the home of Reuben Hazen in West Hartford in the summer of 1795. The teacher was Lionel Udall who is remembered as a severe disciplinarian intent on shaping the minds and hearts of students. In the fall of 1800, classes were also held in Josiah Tilden’s barn across the White River from Hartford Village. In 1807, the town was divided into districts and the first school buildings were constructed. When Noah B. Hazen was superintendant of schools from 1870 to 1881, Hartford residents voted to hire trained teachers and provide students with textbooks. Hartford’s first high school was built in 1884. It doubled in size in 1895 and later moved to its current location to serve as Hartford’s Town Hall. Today's Hartford High School opened in 1963.
At 2:10 am on February 5, 1887 the last car of The Montreal Express derailed on a bridge between White River Junction and West Hartford. Three cars fell from the bridge and crashed on the ice of the White River. Embers from the coal stoves ignited the spilled oil of the lanterns and fire consumed the wreckage. Twenty-five passengers and five crew mmbers perished. As a result of the wreck, oil lanterns and coal stoves were abolished on railroad trains, and electric lights and steam heat were adopted.
William Howard Tucker spent four years writing a narrative of the town's history from 1761 to 1889 using the original records of early settlers. He notes that records were missing for the period from 1778-1802. The records used by Tucker are now in a vault in the Hartford Town Hall. The book is entitled, History of Hartford, Vermont, July 4, 1761-April 4, 1889. It is available online at Google Books, or in PDF on the Hartford Historical Society website.
The Gates block was constructed by George Gates and his daughter Mae Gates Daley. George Gates died in 1887 but Mae completed the building in 1890. Original tenants in the Gates Block were the Post Office, Gates Opera House, Wheeler Bros. Clothing, Hartford Hardware, Rubber and Truss Co, Bogle Bros Jewelry and others.
The Hartford Library was built with $10,000 donated by Ephraim Morris on land provided by Horace Pease. The Ladies Reading Club was formed that same year.
The Loyal Club was established in 1891 and one of its first projects was to erect a monument to all the soldiers of Hartford since the Revolutionary War. It was dedicated on Memorial Day in 1893. The monument stands on the upper level of the Hartford Cemetery where it continues to be the scene of ceremonies every Memorial Day.
Hartford’s charter is dated July 4, 1761. As the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of that date approached in 1911, Kate Morris Cone wrote brief descriptions of memorable events in the area and imagined a community celebration of the resolute people who built the town, the state, and the nation. Soon, Mrs. Charles M. Cone, as she was known, had formed a committee to plan the event including Dr. George Stephens, a widely known veterinarian and former Vermont Cattle Commissioner, and Robert E. Smith, president of the prominent business Smith and Sons. With local management in place, Mrs. Cone secured artistic direction from veteran pageant master Margaret McLaren Eager. The Hartford select board approved a contribution of $500 for the event and hundreds of local residents were soon preparing to take part. The pageant was performed in a natural amphitheater at the end of what is now Worcester Avenue. Seating was erected and spaces were marked for patrons to view the pageant from their cars. The pageant was performed on Saturday July 1, Monday July 3, and twice on Tuesday July 4. Guests arriving by train were driven up the hill in cars and carriages. The Landmark newspaper of July 6, 1911 notes that, “‘Grand’ is the word used by everybody in describing the pageant.” Further, it says that, “To Mrs. Charles M. Cone, the idea and suggestion of the pageant and her disinterested work to the end of its success, do the town’s people accord every praise and appreciation.”
In a sensational, though very carefully and quietly planned gambling raid, three officers of the law, Deputy Sheriffs Angus MacAuley and Daniel Huffnail of Wilder, assisted by Chief of Police Patrick O'Keefe of this place, swooped down upon the Junction House here yesterday afternoon about 4:30 o'clock, disturbed somewhat the equilibrium of 11 or 12 men found in a card room just off the pool room conducted by "Pop" Furman; seized playing cards, quantities of money said to have been found on both of two card tables, and a "Klondike" machine, which it is alleged in the warrant served by Deputy Huffnail immediately after the raid upon Manager N. P. Wheeler of the Junction House, was being used for gambling purposes. On complaint of a citizen of the town of Hartford, made through Grand Juror William S. Pingree yesterday, a warrant was issued for the arrest of the hotel manager, and seizure of the alleged gambling device, which it is claimed was permitted to be used for illegal purposes by persons frequenting the hotel. Deputy Huffnail entered through the Junction House barber shop, and McAuley through the hotel lobby. Just a moment before, Chief of Police O'Keefe had been asked by one of the deputies to join them. On entering the pool room, Huffnail ordered Mr. Furman to open the door to the card room, which was locked. Mr. Furman did so whereupon the trio entered the room. Some of the astonished men inside were playing cards, it is stated, while others were merely looking on. Spread out upon the tables, it is alleged, were both cards and money. The machine found in the room is now in the custody of officials, and is locked up at police headquarters. Judge A.G. Witham stated this morning no trial proceedings in the matter had yet come before him. It is understood further steps await the action of State's Attorney Glen C. Howland of Windsor, who is now in Montpelier, and that manager Wheeler desires postponement of a hearing until Lawyer Trainor returns from court at Woodstock. It is indicated as very probable that papers will be served on the others in the room at the time of the raid, and whose names were taken down by Officer O'Keefe. (Reprinted from The Landmark, December 15, 1921)
(From The Landmark, Nov. 10, 1927) At this writing, White River Junction and its surrounding villages are just emerging from the worst calamity which has ever visited this section. Damage estimated at well over a million dollars in the Town of Hartford, highways and bridges wiped out of existence, roads inundated, buildings wrecked or washed away, two persons known to have drowned. These are but a few of the results of the unprecedented flood which devastated thousands of acres in the town last Thursday and Friday. Rain which commenced late Wednesday night and continued in a veritable downpour until Friday morning and then by spells until noon, precipitated 6.58 inches of rainfall during the thirty hour period of the storm, which covered practically all of Northern and Western New England, wiping whole villages off the map, and destroying property estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars and taking an unknown toll of human life. In the Town of Hartford, the White and Connecticut rivers commenced to rise Thursday afternoon, and during the evening the White River was rising at the rate of two feet per hour and late at night police office Henry B. Leavitt formerly of the force in Manchester, NH, observed the fast rising waters and after conferring with selectman George G. Nichols and Fire Chief Fred A. Hutchinson the fire alarm was sounded, calling the firemen to the station and waking the citizens to the danger. Almost immediately after that time, the fire apparatus was removed to a place of safety, and within a short time, the rear of the fire station fell with a crash into the river, undermined by the swift current. This put the fire alarm system out of commission and it is understood that for the present, arrangements have been made with the railroads that in case of fire, the locomotives in the yard will sound their whistles as a fire signal. Editor’s note: A week later, The Landmark reports that West Hartford was the most severely damaged of Hartford’s villages. (From The Landmark) This little hamlet near the Sharon line suffered from the rushing waters much more severely than any other village in the town. In fact, West Hartford was proportionately about as hard hit as any community in the state of Vermont. Six houses washed away completely, the library, containing about three thousand volumes was carried off, barns floated off, the bridge washed away, stores flooded, and many of the residents with hardly sufficient clothing to protect them from the elements was the story of the flood in West Hartford. Editor’s note: The Vermont Historical Society records that 55 lives were lost in Vermont during the flood of 1927. One hundred and eighty-seven homes were lost along with 200 other buildings. Some 7,056 acres of land were washed away and 1,704 head of cattle drowned.
Over five hundred persons rode, for the last time, over the Woodstock Railroad last Saturday when the “H. H. Paine” locomotive made its last trip over that scenic steel road between this village and Woodstock. Fifteen of the passengers were among those to make the first trip over the route back in September 1875 when the wood-burning engine, the “A. G. Dewey” was at the head of the string of cars. The first passengers were Mrs. Mary Morrill and daughter, Mrs. Lilla Mason, who was three months old on the first trip, O. A. Whitcomb, Fred B. Dutton, James Leonard, W. S. Eaton, Frank H. Knapp, Frederick Chapman, all of Woodstock, Charles Claflin, George Darling and A. J. Perkins of Quechee, R. E. Jaquith of South Woodstock, Lewis H. Spaulding of Briggs, Albert C. Fogg of this village and Harvey DeWolf of Concord, N. H. But one cloud of doom overshadowed the events of Saturday’s big celebration. Somebody, either for the fun of it, or for the “deviltry” of it, greased one of the rails for a third of a mile on the Shallies Hill grade, and for the moment Engineer Harry H. Paine, who had been employed by the Woodstock Railroad Company for 41 years, and Fireman George H. Piper were sorely distressed as to why their engine should fail them on this day of all days. It was their belief that the sandpipe had plugged and their “pride and joy” had failed them. Examination disclosed the thick coating of cup grease. The engine was cut off and made two trips to the top of the hill which wore off the grease, then starting in the middle of the hill, pulled up and over and into White River Junction. Carl Smith, brother of Vice President Smith, who was celebrating his birthday, gathered a cigarette package of the grease as a souvenir and proceeded to make the trip over the Woodstock line. The special pulled out of this station about 2:45 with 350 aboard. Robert P. Woods, citizen sponsor of the excursion, boarded the engine at Taftsville and blew the whistle from Joyce crossing into Woodstock station. Hundreds were on hand to greet the excursionists. Cameras snapped and many rushed to shake hands with officials, especially General Manager Furber, who acted as one of the conductors, a job he had first held more than 30 years ago. Others reached the cab and grasped the hand of Engineer Paine and Fireman Piper and shouted words of greeting to C. H. “Bert” Preston, the other conductor, and Brakeman W. A. “Bill” Graham. Number 4, the last passenger train to be run, left the Woodstock station at 4:30 with nearly 100 passengers. As it rounded the engine house curve and picked up momentum on the straight-a-way, a silver-haired man on the platform with tears in his eyes remarked “the echo of that whistle we just heard will always remain in my memory as a sacred benediction.” The former railroad bed became our present-day Route 4. Shallies Hill is located in the general area between the on/off Ramp for I-89 S and the intersection of Route 4 and Quechee Main Street.
Nicknamed at the time, “The Long Island Express” or “The Yankee Clipper,” the Hurricane of 1938 is still remembered vividly by White Junction resident Harold Wright. The violent storm originated south of the Cape Verde Islands off the coast of Africa. During its trek across the Atlantic, it reached Category 5 intensity by the time it arrived in the Bahamas on September 20, 1938, and then began its journey northward. Lodged between high-pressure systems that had formed to the east and the west, the hurricane rode a trough of low pressure, reaching Long Island on September 21 and continuing toward New England. During the 1930s, weather forecasting in the U.S. was far less sophisticated. Forecasters even then were considered to be poorly trained, and systematic planning was not in place. As a result, they had to scrape by to get whatever information they could. So, due to the lack of reliable, accurate information, the intensity of this coming storm was greatly underestimated. The Yankee Clipper slammed into Vermont at 6 p.m. on September 23, causing extensive damage to trees, buildings and power lines. An estimated 2,000 miles of roads were rendered impassable. Salt spray from the ocean could be seen on windows as far away from the coast as Montpelier, and high winds derailed a train in Castleton. In total, an estimated 682 lives were lost in New England, and more than 57,000 homes were damaged or destroyed, bringing the total damage to an estimated $4.7 billion in today’s dollars. It holds the record as the most powerful and deadly hurricane in recorded New England history. Harold Wright was going on 12 years old at the time, living on the family farm on Route 5, just south of White River Junction. Dairy farming was the family’s principal livelihood, with “24 or 25” head of cattle. The production of milk was stored in a cooler in the farm’s milk house before being shipped to a creamery in Bellows Falls. The Wright’s income was rounded out by raising potatoes, strawberries, hens and turkeys and by selling eggs. (Harold recalls an annual trip to the circus as his reward for his work on the farm.) His parents, Seaver and Helen Wright, and Mr. and Mrs. Charlie Neal had departed for the Eastern States Exposition in Springfield, Massachusetts, on Tuesday of that week with the intention of staying for several days. However, when the heavy rains began on Wednesday, Mr. Wright grew uneasy and announced that he wanted to return home. Mr. Neal wanted to stay, but since he wasn’t driving, there was no choice but to pack up and head for home. Fortunately, they arrived back in Vermont before much damage had occurred. Harold wonders how long it would have taken his parents to return had they not started out when they did, since roads were rendered impassable by fallen trees and debris for weeks to come. The family managed to bring the cows into the barn for safety before the wind reached peak intensity. There was no electricity or phone service, so the family had to make do with flashlights when darkness set in. Harold and one of his brothers shared a room, and each thought the other had managed to fall asleep, but both were lying in their beds, praying that they would get through the night as the wind shook the house and rattled the windows and the rain came down in torrents. It was a terrifying experience for the young boys. A stand of poplar trees across the road was no match for the wind’s velocity, and they toppled easily. However, the maples, having a deeper root system stayed upright. The house itself rode out the storm with relatively little damage, and the barn lost but a few shingles. Thankfully, the silos remained upright because they were on the backside of the barn and so were protected from the wind. As luck would have it, heifers in the back pasture that the family was unable to get into the barn survived. Fences were knocked down, so the milking cows couldn’t be put out to pasture until they were repaired. The family was grateful that the farm had escaped devastating damage, but because the roads were blocked by fallen trees and other debris, the milk couldn’t be shipped out. It was fed to the pigs and chickens or made into butter and cheese by Harold’s mother. What they couldn’t find a use for had to be dumped because without electricity there was no means to keep it cool. A week passed before the roads were cleared and traffic resumed. There was a considerable loss of lumber on the Wright’s property, perhaps as much as one million board feet. Harold recalls that lumber wasn’t worth much back then, but they salvaged and cut 100,000 board feet and sold it to the government, doing the work manually with crosscut saws. The financial impact on the family was mitigated by the fact that they were self-sufficient and thrifty. Very little of their food was purchased. Harold recalls that he never had new clothes until he was married. Being the third son, he had plenty of hand-me-downs. His mother dressed the family in clothing donated to rummage sales by wealthy Hartford families, such as the Morrises and the Pingrees, so the family wore good quality items purchased at reasonable prices. He recalls that they had to curtail their activities for awhile, but the family’s big annual outing had been the turkey supper at their church, so the impact wasn’t significant. At the time, Harold was in fifth grade at the Municipal Building (recently renamed the Town Hall), and he remembers missing a week of school. There was no loss of life locally as a result of the hurricane, and for that everyone was extremely thankful as they rolled up their sleeves and went to work repairing the damage. However, 80 years later, Harold vividly recalls in great detail the terror he experienced as a small boy on September 23, 1938.
The I91 bridge over the White River was started in 1965 and completed in 1967. Mohawk Indians from the Caughnawaga Reservation were engaged for the steel work as they specialize in high-level construction. (Historical Highlights of the Town of Hartford; John W. St. Croix)
The Quechee Lakes Landowners' Association was incorporated in 1970 and completed its first clubhouse in 1974. The club now has two golf courses, a ski area, tennis courts, and pool facilities. Houses and condominiums attract hundreds of full and part-time residents to the area.
In 1986, an archaeological survey was conducted in Quechee by the University of Massachusetts prior to the construction of a hydroelectric plant at Dewey’s Mill. Workers at this site found sixty-seven pieces of material produced during the chipping of stone tools. These flakes, referred to as lithic debitage, include broken tools and other waste materials that were clearly made by humans. These items are not dated but other Vermont artifacts are thought to be at least 1,300 years old. These items are now in the collection of the Vermont Archaeology Heritage Center.
A new Vermont District Court was built in downtown White River Junction in 1990. The location near the train station was chosen to add vibrancy to the town center.
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