Broad Brook and Connecticut River

Broad Brook and Route 142

Whetstone Brook and Connecticut River Whetstone Brook and Railroad Arch Bridge

Ancient Native Americans would move with the seasons. The joining of the West

and Connecticut Rivers was long a summer lodging place.

The confluence of the Connecticut and West Rivers

Fort Hill (Great Bend) 1663

Metacom’s (King Philips) War 1675

Grey Lock’s War 1722

The Vernon, Guilford, Brattleboro, Dummerston and Putney area was a pivot point for the end of KingPhilip’s War and the beginning of the French-IndianWars.

Equivalent Lands 171444,000 acres Putney, Dummerstonand Brattleboro

Fort Dummer 1724

Fort Bridgeman from Not Without Peril 1738

last commander of Fort Dummer Old Fort Dummer Cemetery

John Sergeant Grave Locust Hill Cemetery

Meeting House Hill was established in 1768, (the beginningof a “town”). 70 of the 75 men living within the bordersof Brattleboro signed a “Covenant” which bound the 403residents of the town together politically and religiously.

Who Controls West of the “Great River”

In 1714 an agreement between the Massachusett s and Connecticut Coloniesestablished this area as the “Equivalent Lands”. Connecticut sold the “rights” to thisLand to Massachusetts land speculators. The Abenaki and French were fighting to forcethe “Bostoniaks” out of the area.

In 1724 the Massachusetts Colony built Fort Dummer to protect their settlements to thesouth and combat and trade with the Abenaki in the area. Settlers moved into the area.

Beginning in 1750, Governor Benning Wentworth of the New Hampshire Colony made grants of land west of the Connecticut River, north of the Massachusetts line, and by the end of the French War, had divided the New Hampshire Grants into townships…more settlers moved in.

In 1763 a proclamation issued by Lt. Governor Cadwallader Colden of the New York Colony declared that…all persons“under the Grants of the government of New Hampshire” would “be proceeded against according to law”.

In 1764 the King of England declared all land west of the Connecticut River to belong toNew York retroactively back to 1664 so all Massachusetts and New Hampshire claims were“null and void”. Land disputes followed…there were almost 400 people living in the area with land titles not coming from the New York Colony and their government was 150 milesaway on the other side of a mountain.

In 1767 the King of England declared that New York authorities could not “molest anyperson who could produce a valid deed for land under the Province of New Hampshire”.

In July 1776, while the colonies were declaring their independence from England, a convention of settlers on the eastern side of the Green Mountains resolved to form four “ranging parties” of sixty men each, designed to scour the woods and expel by force any Abenaki living within the borders of the eastern NY counties along the Connecticut River.

In July 1776 a convention of towns on the west side of the mountains voted to form a new state and refused to follow New York laws. By 1777 many eastern towns joined Vermont.

Brattleboro did not participate in Vermont government until 1781 and attempted to remain loyal to New York during that time.

In 1782 representatives from the towns of Brattleboro, Guilford, Halifax and Marlboro met to reaffirm their allegiance to New York. Military companies of men supporting New York and Vermont were formed in Brattleboro and there was fear of a Civil War.

In September of 1782 Ethan Allen and 250 Vermont troops came to the area to suppressNew York loyalties. From 1782 to 1784 men loyal to New York were imprisoned, their landconfiscated, and they were banished from the state unless they declared their loyalty to Vermont.

Vermont Asylum for the Insane 1844

Anna Marsh died in 1834 and her will established the “Brattleboro Retreat”

Estey Organ Company 1846

Water Cure 1847

Railroad 1849

Main Street @ 1860

View looking north from present day BAMS

“As early as 1726 timber was being floated down the river. In 1733 a company of Men in Connecticut had been formed for cutting and floating down the river whitepine logs for the British Navy. They sent a shipment of this lumber from New London, Connecticut to England and had then ‘in the woods, near 70 miles above Fort Dummer a considerable number of men cutting and preparing another ship load.” -Annals of Brattleboro

Logging on the Connecticut River @1865-1915

Valley Fair 1886-1931

Then

Now

The Islands

Floods devastated the Islands 1906 1912

the Vernon Dam also helped erode the islands

Island Park 1909-1927

Vernon Dam 1909

Snowflake Canning Company 1900 – 1921 site of present day Riverside Industries in 1906 produced 700,000 cans of corn and 25,000 cans of succotash

Part of a larger Maine-based company that owned 6 or 8 northeastcanning companies

1922-1942 Dummerston Granite was transported by train to the former cannery

The granite company left and from1944 to 1960 the plant went back to making cans.

Cummer Company, a division of SterlingDrugs created the Energine brand.

From 1960 to 2003 Four different paper companies expanded and operated the mill.They produced various kinds of pulp-based paper products including tissue, toilet paper, paper towels and napkins. The companies were A.P.W. Products, Erving Paper, Georgia Pacific and SCA Tissue. Cersosimo bought the site in 2006.

Rudyard Kipling Madame Cherie Clarina Nichols Royall Tyler

Elizabeth Thompson Jim Fisk Larkin Mead Frederick Holbrook