The Brattleboro Words Project may seem quite finished — loaded with amazing people, places, and history to discover. But there’s so much more we’d like to add.
Below please find a list of sites we are aware of and would love to see covered in the months ahead by members of the community.
Please keep in mind that we also welcome comments and additions to existing stories if you have something more to say or want to take a different angle on a topic. You will also see a few names where we already have some material but want to add more–for instance, Rudyard Kipling.
We also heartily welcome new ideas for stories that make sense for the trail–if you have such an idea, write to us at BrattleboroWords@gmail.comand we can get something going – together!
Topics Needing Research/Production Help
- Rudyard Kipling
- Mary Wilkins Freeman
- John Humphrey Noyes
New Topics
DORIS SEALE, ALGIERS VILLAGE, GUILFORD: Abenaki author Doris Seale was a writer(A Broken Flute; Ghost Dance: New and Selected Poems),storyteller and Boston children’s librarian for 45 years. She founded Oyate, a Native organization that reviews children’s literature. Doris was born in the village of Algiers in Guilford and lived in a tent on Broad Brook for the first three years of her life. Doris’ mother died of polio when she was nine years old, her father was institutionalized at Brattleboro Retreat and Doris and her two sisters were placed in Kurn Hattin.
FORT HILL:
Abenaki Fort built in today’s Hinsdale was excavated in 70s. Fort Hill Rail Trail in NH goes near. One source may be Michael J. Caduto, author of “A Time Before New Hampshire: The Story of a Land and Native Peoples.”
GREAT MEADOWS, PUTNEY
BELLOWS FALLS PETROGLYPHS
OTHER STORIES WE WOULD LIKE TO ADD TO THE TRAIL
ELSIE ROBINSON, CROWELL PARK:
She was one of the nation’s most famous columnists in the early 1900s. She married into the Crowell family and lived at their mansion that used to be where Crowell Park on High Street is today. We have contact with Allison Gilbert, co-author of a 2022 book about Elsie called “Listen World: How the Intrepid Elsie Robinson Became America’s Most-Read Woman”
PEARL BUCK (1892-1973), LANDMARK COLLEGE.
Taught at old Windham College, now Landmark College. First American Woman to Win Both a Pulitzer and Nobel Prize. In 1938, Pearl Buck was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature for her epic portrayal of Chinese peasant life and for the biographies of her parents. She was the first American woman to be awarded both the Pulitzer and Nobel Prizes for literature.
TEDDY ROOSEVELT / CHERRY HUNTING CAMP
(Wardsboro) American President Teddy Roosevelt often visited his friend’s hunting camp, may be letters to investigate..
ROBERT L. CROWELL (Newfane, Moore Library)
Robert L. (Bob) Crowell, former head of the Thomas Y. Crowell Company (which later became part of Harper Collins Publishers), was the grandson of the company’s eponymous founder. Thomas Y. Crowell began publishing books in 1876 and was the first U.S. publisher of Tolstoy and Gogol. Bob joined the company as a salesman in 1931, was elected treasurer in 1937, and rose to head the company in 1938. Under his leadership, the company published Roget’s International Thesaurus,the Frank Heller detective series and numerous art and children’s books.
HP LOVECRAFT: ROUND MOUNTAIN
Famed science fiction writer HP Lovecraft visited his friend on Goodenough Rd and used the setting for at least one story. Round Mountain may figure in Abenaki mythology and is located along an ancient footpath, which in the 1740’s became the first road in what is now the State of Vermont.A student audio is on the Trail already.
MARLBORO COLLEGE
Founding, writings and authors, such as Robert Frost, associated with this college. Houses Galbraith archives. William Edelglass PhD and others available for interviews.
HARMONY LOT
Harmony Hall, famed spiritualists center.
COMMON GROUND RESTAURANT/EVERYONE’S BOOKS (Elliot Street)
Hotbed of arts/literature – poetry readings, politics in 70’s, 80’s, birthplace of Write Action, Marty Jeezer. Editing needed on this piece.
FOWLER PRINT SHOP -(Above Burrows, Main Street)
A sometimes-accessible treasure trove of printing paraphernalia from late 19th-mid 20th centuries. Smithsonian carried away much that was valuable when the space, which had been preserved in time by Wood of Burrows Sports Shop, who owns the building, was put on market. Interviews with Woody and others desired.
BRIGHAM YOUNG BIRTHPLACE (Whitingham) We have a story but would like to add more if possible. There are many markers in Whitingham and it is a Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormon) pilgrimmage site.
LAURA PLANTZ HOUSE, PUTNEY
Vermont’s First Female Medical Practitioner, Dr. Laura Plantz (1829-1923),graduated from Pennsylvania Medical University of Philadelphia. She specialized in women’s diseases and was superintendent of the Home of the Friendless in New York. In 1950, Norman Mailer briefly lived here while completing his second novel, Barbary Shore.
CHARLES MORROW WILSON, Putney
Charles Morrow Wilson was a nationally known freelance author. While the majority of his many books and magazine articles were on international trade, agriculture, and medicine topics, a significant number were on Arkansas culture and politics. He lived in Putney from 1933 on.
THE BOOK CELLAR
120 Main Street First home of the Stephen Greene Press, As a bookstore, a local icon 50 years
CALDWELL BARN, Putney
Cross Country Ski Olympic coach John Caldwell wrote “The Cross Country Ski Book” — the first of its kind and what Boston Globe called the ‘bible of the sport” in 1964, published by Stephen Greene Press, family continues the tradition as top competitors.
THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON, ASYLUM STREET
A letter written by TW Higginson May 7, 1858 while he was in Brattleboro to John Brown encouraging him to go through with the raid, which was Brown’s undoing in October of the following year. Higginson’s brother was a doctor and knew about the restorative waters of Brattleboro (moved here 1842-43) before Wesselhoeft moved to the area. T.W. was also a close friend of Lucy Stone’s, who was a close friend of Clarina Nichols, and they were all women’s rights, radical abolitionists hanging out in Brattleboro in the 1850’s. T.W. was also a member of the “Secret Six”, a group of men who organized the financing of John Brown’s Raid, and Brown’s other acts of civil disobedience.
JOHN HOLBROOK HOUSE
After retirement from active business in 1825, Deacon John Holbrook built his late Federal style house on twenty acres of land, across from the Common, now the corner of Linden and Chapin Streets. In 1795 he moved to Brattleboro. Holbrook established an outlet for farm produce with a leading Hartford, Connecticut merchant. He built a slaughter house on the island later known as Island Park where large quantities of beef, pork, and hams were cured for the West India trade market. He also owned the first flat-bottomed boat on the Connecticut River for the exchange of heavy freight with the seaboard. He owned “The Highlander”, a flat boat which could carry 24 tons and was the largest of its type on the river. Meanwhile, he became quite successful in importing goods from the West Indies to Brattleboro by water. In 1816 John Holbrook (a Deacon of the First Church of Brattleboro’s East Village) took over his son-in-law’s business of paper making, printing, bookbinding, and book dealing, as well as the publishing of one of Brattleboro’s first newspapers. Besides Deacon Holbrook’s extensive commercial ventures by flatboat, his trade with the West Indies and his publishing interests, he was one of the original directors of the Phoenix Bank of Hartford, Connecticut; president of the Brattleboro Bank; one of the original trustees of the Vermont Asylum for the Insane; and also one of the first trustees of the Brattleboro High School Assoc.
MARSHALL TWITCHELL, Townshend, Fairground Road
(Have a student piece but more is needed for this highly interesting character/writer/soldier) Local Civil War soldier, Marshall Twitchell, stayed in Louisiana after the war and ran for state-wide office. He won critical African American support and was elected to the state senate. During the war he had commanded African American troops. He had worked for the U.S. government during Reconstruction and had championed African American causes. He was also influential in the organization of the African American public school system.
In May, 1876 a Ku Klux Klan assassin armed with a rifle attempted to kill Twitchell. Twitchell was wounded six times, which required the amputation of both arms above the elbow. Two of his relatives had been assassinated earlier by the Klan because they also supported African American rights. Twitchell moved back to the Townshend area after the assassination attempt and Reconstruction in the south faded away. Twitchell’s autobiography is titled Carpetbagger from Vermont. There is also a book written about him by Ted Tunnell called Edge of the Sword
LUCY STONE OLD BAPTIST CHURCH (CORNER OF ELLIOT AND CHURCH ST)
Stone was a working-class advocate for the abolition movement and women’s rights. She was a friend of Clarina Nichols and spoke frequently at the old Baptist Church. Her first paid speeches were made in Brattleboro.
MARY SHIMINSKI TRAIN OVERPASS AT THE PUTNEY ROAD ROUNDABOUT
Poet Miriam Andrews wrote a poem “Mary Shiminski, I Love You” based upon the 1974 story of Mary and Bert, who played out a romance between Putney, Spofford Lake and HoJo’s during the summer of ‘74. The MacArthur’s recorded a song about the love story as well. The words “Mary Shiminski, I Love You” were spray painted on the overpass.
THOMAS “STONEWALL” JACKSON WESSELHOEFT WATERCURE
July, 1860, Jackson and his wife stayed at the watercure for two weeks…he wrote his brother that the visit was a waste of time, they moved on to a watercure in Northampton where they believed they had more success…”Stonewall” was suffering from stomach pains.
LARKIN MEAD MAYBE WELLS FOUNTAIN
(site of Recording Angel ice sculpture)
Larkin Mead worked as an illustrator for Harper’s Weekly during the early stages of the Civil War and had his illustrations published in the magazine, along with reports on the war. He was also a famous artist who sculpted a few statues on display at the Vt. capitol building in Montpelier and some work focused on Lincoln.
MANTLE FOR THE STATUE OF LIBERTY
The mantle for the Statue of Liberty was designed in Brattleboro near Pliny Park by Brattleboro architect Richard Morris Hunt. Poet Emma Lazarus wrote a poem inspired by the Statue of Liberty called “The New Colossus.”
AUDITORIUM IN TOWN HALL, BOOKER T. WASHINGTON
On December 13, 1899 Booker T. Washington came to Brattleboro and gave an address in the Town Hall Auditorium entitled “Solving the Race Problem”. In Washington’s 1899 speech to the people of Brattleboro he said the “race problem” would be simply solved when everyone, negro and white, treated one another like they would like to be treated. In other words, African Americans should be able to vote, they should be able to own property, educate their children, operate a business and compete equally in the economy. He then went on to explain how all of these rights were denied African Americans in the South, and in some Northern cities as well.
Booker T. Washington went further to say, once all people treated one another equally, African Americans would help themselves and rise to join white people. Then, the two races, which are truly inseparable, would thrive in co-existence. Local Congregational, Baptist and Presbyterian Churches supported Washington’s visit to Brattleboro. One of Booker T. Washington’s speaking tour goals was to raise money for rural African American schools in the South. Residents of Brattleboro had shown a willingness to donate to these causes in the past. Jacob Estey, of Estey Organ, had funded the construction of the first African American dorm for women at Shaw University in North Carolina.According to the local paper, Washington was well received by a capacity crowd at the auditorium.
DANIEL WEBSTER PLINY PARK, BRIDGE OVER WEST RIVER OR TOP OF GROVE ST.
Daniel Webster was a frequent visitor to Brattleboro. According to the book, Burt’s Illustrated Guide of the Connecticut Valley, published in 1867, Daniel Webster was a good friend of Jonathan Hunt’s. Jonathan Hunt was a U.S. Congressman from Vermont who lived in the first brick house built in Brattleboro. In the early 1800’s it was the custom for two or more Congressmen to share a home in Washington rather than to live at a hotel and Webster and Hunt were housemates while they both served in the U.S. Congress in the 1820’s. Webster was a recurrent visitor to Hunt’s home in Brattleboro and, according to Webster’s letters, the two families also vacationed together in New York state. In 1829 Daniel Webster spent the summer with the Hunt’s in Brattleboro and he and Jonathan discussed the direction the country should take. There were some in Congress who felt the United States would not survive as the three sections of the country had competing interests. Slavery, trade, immigration and labor costs were some of the issues tearing the country apart. According to historian Henry Burt, it was during Webster’s summer trip to Brattleboro, visiting with Jonathan Hunt, where he formed the ideas and arguments that would keep the country together until the Civil War. Around 1840, Daniel Webster visited Brattleboro again and gave a rousing speech in an oak grove behind Joseph Goodhue’s house on upper Main Street. The speech contained support for the current Whig party candidate for President, William Henry Harrison, and included a brief overview of the U.S. Constitution. Daniel Webster was a well-known politician and lawyer originally from NH and was introduced to the supportive crowd as “the Defender of the Constitution”. Webster also worked as a lawyer and represented a private company attempting to keep the Putney Road bridge over the West River a private concern, but lost the case in a Supreme Court judgement.
BROOKS MEMORIAL PUBLIC LIBRARY
The library, where “words” come alive though a myriad of written forms; the library a site where “words” flow from writers, researchers and speakers. Trace the evolution of the current BML dating back to 1842. Noting famous individuals who used the library for writing, research etc.
BRATTLEBORO’S FIRST PAPER MILL
dates from around the 1780s. In 1828 Samuel G. Foster invented the pulp dresser which was a major success in making it possible to produce whiter paper (also attributed to local water spring water). If we know the locations of first paper mill or Foster mill, these might be interesting sites.
THOMAS M. EASTERLY
Ffrst known photographs of Brattleboro circa 1848. Owned property in Brattleboro from 1839 to 1841. He was a calligrapher and gave writing lessons here in 1840. The three earliest photos show Brattleboro from Wantastiquet Mt., an image of the Retreat and an image of the Connecticut River.
THE MARLBORO THEATER COMPANY
located at the current Colonel Williams Inn– in the barn, actually– a fabulous small company that operated for at least ten years the ‘60s and ‘70s, putting on everything from Ibsen and Shakespeare to Moliere and Pinter.