An Historical Guide to Fairlee, VT

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The center of Fairlee, before it was de stroyed by fire in 1912...

. . and as it has looked since the 1940’s

AN HISTORICAL GUIDE TO

FAIRLEE, VERMONT

Prepared by the Fairlee Bicentennial Committee Updated in 2022

The Town of Fairlee, encompassing the Village of Ely, lies between the Connecticut River and the foothills of the Green Mountains with rocky cliffs towering over the Town and the highway to the north. Its two scenic lakes, Lake Morey and Lake Fairlee, have attracted a host of visi tors, young and old, who return here year after year to the camps, inns and vacation homes. With the development of its lakes as recreation al centers, and the improvement of highways, Fairlee became a resort town in summer. Restaurants, shops and many other services for visitors and travelers added to the town's economy and attractiveness. When the foliage has gone in the fall the pace slows but winter sports, includ ing ice-skating on Lake Morey and programs in the newly refurbished town hall auditorium keep the town lively until spring comes again.

Early History

The original boundaries of Fairlee date back to the days of King George the Third, who made the original grant to the Governor of New Hampshire, Benning Wentworth, in 1761. An area of roughly six square miles was divided into sixty-four plots, including one for a min ister, one for a school and one for the Church of England. This latter plot, known as Glebe Land, was located on the west side of Lake Mo rey, and for many years, those who lived on it paid rent for its use to a branch of that church. When the French and Indian Wars ended, settlers came up the river from Connecticut by oxcart. Few of the indigenous people had ever lived in the Fairlee region, but there was a well-traveled route nearby from Canada to hunting grounds in the south. They went by canoe down Lake

Champlain to the Winooski River. At its head waters there was a portage to the Waits River or the White River, thence to the Connecticut. Most of the place names in Vermont are of English origin, and it is probable that Fair lee was named for a town in England. A few indigenous names, however, have come down from earlier days. "Quinibeck", meaning "long pond", was the name of a girls' camp on Lake Fairlee. The Fairlee cliffs on Route 5 north of the village were called Senneemahgesso in the Algon quin language, which means "the eagle rocks". The indigenous people called the Brushwood (northwest) section Madagascar, which has been interpreted as "poor game, bad meat" or "rabbit". At first Fairlee was part of the Colony of New York in what was then Gloucester County. The rival claims of New York and New Hamp shire continued through the American Revo lution. Shortly after the Revolution, Vermont became an independent republic until it was admitted to the Union in 1791 as the 14th state.

In 1774, the first Town meeting was held to allot the land and plan roads. All sixty-four original grant ees did not keep their land and soon Israel Morey and Nathaniel Niles were the largest landowners, having bought up many of the smaller holdings. Morey's land was in the eastern part of Town and Niles' was in the western portion. It is thought that their rivalry was a factor in the partition of the Town in 1797, creating the Town of West Fairlee. Farming was the livelihood for most of the settlers. However, the need for a sawmill and a gristmill was acute, as the nearest were in Charlestown, N.H., sixty miles away. Morey was commissioned to build the mills at a Town meeting in 1780. They were built at the outlet of "Fairlee Pond", now Lake Morey. Morey also ran a ferry to Orford, N.H., directly across from the south end of Fairlee. As farming prospered, the population jumped from 386 in 1800 to 1,143 in 1820. The largest farms were in the Brushwood area, which also had the biggest school. In a short time the fertil

ity of the land was depleted, farming did not pay well, and migration to the West began. Popula tion declined as rapidly as it had grown. Within ten years it had dwindled to some 600 persons. The Brushwood settlement has disappeared, leaving only a few cellar holes, stone walls and neglected apple trees as reminders of the past.

As dairy farming became more important, small family farms grew up along the meadows bordering the river. A cluster of stores and shops to meet the needs of the farmers and townspeople arose where the road across the bridge to Orford intersected the River Road.

Besides general stores, feed stores, and a black smith, there were manufactories for tool han dles, stone jars, butter tubs and charcoal. Later, a creamery, a livery stable, a hotel and an Opera House for traveling shows were established. The Opera House, the public library and the Meeting House, which served both as a church and Town Hall, were destroyed in a fire in the winter of 1912. The church and the Town Hall have been rebuilt as separate buildings. The li brary is now in a building at the corner of School St., formerly the Kettledrum restaurant.

Lake Morey was "discovered" by A. W. Ken ny, an artist from Chicago who built a studio and ran an art school here in 1888. His house, which he called "Birchmere", is on the west shore just south of Middle Point. A summer ho tel, The Glen Falls House, which later burned, was also built in 1888, then a photographer's studio, both of these also at Middle Point.

The early covered bridge connecting Fairlee with Orford

The railroad, which had come to Fairlee in 1848, made the lake accessible to city dwell ers and the construction of roads to the north end of the Lake caused a flurry of building. By 1898 there were about forty summer places. Hotels and camps came soon after. "Kaulin", was at first a small hotel which later became part of the Lake Morey Resort known countrywide as a fine resort hotel with a golf course, swim ming pool and other fine recreation facilities

Next to the Town Beach stood “The Casino” built in 1906. For many years it was the center of night life in the area. Many local peo ple and summer residents grow nostalgic about summer evenings spent there, the dancing, the music, the people, in a romantic lake setting.

“The Casino”, Lake Morey

The Glen Falls House, Lake Morey, built in 1888 Samuel Morey

In the middle of Fairlee, in front of the railroad station, is an historic marker which reads:

"SAMUEL MOREY Pioneer Inventor of Steam and Gas Engines lived here

Samuel Morey, resident of Orford and later Fair lee, successfully operated a steamboat on the Conn. River in 1793. Making over 4000 exper iments, this early scientist patented an internal combustion engine in 1826 to anticipate the age of the motorcar and airplane."

Samuel was born the son of Israel Morey, a founder and leading citizen of Fairlee. He was a self-educated genius, and from an early age spent much of his time tinkering and inventing in a workshop he built on his father's property. There is a strong probability that credit for the first successful steam-driven boat should be giv en to Morey rather than Robert Fulton. Fourteen years before "The Clermont" made her historic trip up the Hudson, Morey traveled upstream on the Connecticut at a speed·of four miles an hour in a small paddle wheel boat propelled by a steam engine. Furthermore, in 1797 he operated

a steamboat service between Bordentown, N.J. and Philadelphia.

Fulton, Morey, and Robert Livingston, the Chan cellor of New York, for several years planned to form a company using the Morey patent. Both New Yorkers came to Orford where Morey was then living, and he made several trips to New York to negotiate the terms. When the final offer came through, Morey was to receive only $7,500 for his patent. He refused the offer. With Living ston's backing, Fulton finally went ahead with the project and became famous.

Morey was a man of many interests, with lum bering and mill operation his chief concerns. His inventions resulted largely from his constant at tempts to improve operating methods.

He devised slides from the heights on the west shore of the Lake for logs to reach the water eas ily. Across the road from the small sand pit south of Glen Falls Brook near Middle Point is a hollow running into the Lake which is said to be one such slide.

When his wife died, Morey moved to a small house he built in Fairlee which he called Bonny Vale. This is now part of the Lake Morey Resort property at the corner of Brenna

Road and Lake

Captain Lucas (kneeling beside the smokestack) and his popular Lake Morey steamer, “The Gypsy” - - July 26, 1892

Morey Road.

Having been in charge of locks and canals on the Connecticut River from Windsor Locks to Wild er, he continued to experiment with miniature locks and dams at the outlet from Lake Morey, which ran past his back yard. He had a canal dug from the Lake to the River but did not agree with a scheme then being promoted to connect Lake Champlain with the ocean.

Morey also became interested in the study of fish and wrote extensively about them. He stocked Lake Morey with pickerel which he got from Post Pond in Lyme, N.H. He also studied and exper imented with trout in "The Fish House", which was his laboratory on the Lake shore.

He built another boat, "The Aunt Sally", which he ran as a pleasure boat on Lake Morey. Tradition says he sank the boat in disappointment over his failure to be recognized as the inventor of the steamboat, but this seems out of character and nothing has ever been found to substantiate the story.

Among his thousands of inventions and experiments none was more important than his dis covery of the idea of a carburetor for a gasoline engine. Charles Duryea, a pioneer auto maker in America, spent much time and money to win rec ognition for Morey as the one who made possible the development of automobiles and airplanes. Morey died at the age of 80 and is buried in the Orford Cemetery in the Morey family plot.

Lake Fairlee

A small section of Lake Fairlee is in the Town of Fairlee, most of the lake being in Thetford, the Town just south of Fairlee, with a small section in West Fairlee.

Known as "the camping center of the world", Lake Fairlee at one time had nine children's camps on its shores, Quinibeck Camps being the only one in the Town of Fairlee. Like Lake Morey, the land around Lake Fairlee was mostly farmland. Winter

occupations were ice cutting, logging, and strip ping of hemlock bark for use in tanning.

A few of Lake Fairlee's old houses remain. Many have been restored, among them "the Ely House" at the head (North end) of the lake, a house moved piece by piece about 1912 from the once-famous Ely copper mines.

The railroad station at Ely, formerly known as South Fairlee, was also brought down from the mines. It burned in 1903, was rebuilt and is now a private residence.

Before railroad passenger service was dis continued, the Ely station seemed as busy as Grand Central Terminal in late June and late August, when camp children, summer people and their baggage arrived and departed.

Today, Ely remains largely farmland. Quinibeck is no longer operating as a camp and has become the site of a few year-'round homes and several summer houses and cottages.

Natural Resources

Most of the lakes in Vermont, including those in Fairlee, were formed when the great ice sheet re treated, scooping out hollows and damming up streams with debris from the glacier which once covered New England. The beauty of these lakes surrounded by wooded hills has not been spoiled by development. This is true of Glen Falls, a fifty-foot cataract of the Glen Falls Brook, and Bog Pond (above the north end of Lake Morey), which is a unique "quaking" peat bog with rare plant life. The Town Forest of 700 acres is located on Bald Top Mountain and is a favorite hiking and picnicking area. The stretch of the Connecti cut River known as Wilder Lake from the Wilder Dam to the north for 40 miles is a popular waterway for canoeists and power boaters.

The mountains around Lake Morey provide spec tacular views of the Lake and Connecticut Riv er valley. There are paths and trails to the top of Sawyer Mountain and the Palisades of Morey's

Mountain overlooking the village. Longer walks to the top of Bald Top will take the hiker through unspoiled forest abundant with plant and animal life. Near the Bradford town line is the Brushwood Cemetery with some Civil War graves. This is one of three cemeteries in Fairlee, all of which have some very old grave stones.

The people of Fairlee take pride in its natural beauty and its more than 250 years of history. As the pressures of increasing growth mount, its inhabitants are more than ever aware of the trust placed in their hands to preserve its environment and its heritage.

The Fairlee Historical Society is indebted to the following sources for information used in this guide: The Town Under the Cliff, a History of Fairlee, Vermont, by Philip C. Robinson; Samuel Morey, The Edison of His Day, by George Calvin Carter; and Indian Place Names in Vermont, by John C. Huden.

Updated in 2022

The Fairlee Historical Society seeks historical information about Fairlee, and col lects documents and artifacts pertaining to the Town’s past. The Fairlee Historical Society would appreciate any help read ers can give in supplying information, or giving or lending historical items. Please contact the Fairlee Town Clerks Office at 802-333-4363 ext. 1 or townclerk@fairleevt.gov