Vol. 21...No. 17.
Milton Independent. VERMONT PUBLISHING CORPORATION, ... ECRWSS POSTAL PATRON.
THURSDAY (MORNING), JUNE 6, 2013. PRESORT STANDARD U.S. POSTAGE PD.
TEACH ER PENS BOOK TO COMM EMORATE H ISTORY
GARY FURLONG, STUDENTS COLLECT IMAGES
NEW VOLUME ‘L ASTING CONTRIBUTION ’ IN 250TH YR.
By COURTNEY LAMDIN
Reprinted with permission from Milton, by Gary Furlong. Available from the publisher online at www.arcadiapublishing.com or by calling 888-313-2665.
JOSEPH CLARK WAS INSTRUMENTAL IN BRINGING THE RAILROAD TO MILTON. THIS 1849 ENGINE WAS ORGINALLY NAMED THE GOVERNOR PAINE AND WAS RENAMED JOSEPH CLARK IN 1869.
CLARK MADE M ILTON By LORINDA A. HENRY
I
n 250 years, Joseph Clark, arriving in 1816 and staying until his death in 1879, was one of our finest citizens. During those years, Clark not only grew up with the town, he caused it to grow up with him. His business sense and hard work made an indelible impression upon the town. Born in Addison County on Feb. 2, 1795, he was the eldest of nine children. His parents came from Connecticut. After only a few years in Bridport, the family moved to Madison County, N.Y., where Clark grew up. He may have gone back to Connecticut for education, but at the young age of 20 in 1816, he came to Milton and went into the lumber business at West Milton. 1816 was known as Eighteen Hundred and Froze to Death – not a good year for most of the northeast because of the frosts and snow every month. Agricultural crops failed, but the woodlands Clark invested in survived, and while for many that was a breaking year that had them pulling up stakes and moving west, Clark stayed put. Milton was still covered by large tracts of pine. He cleared acres of woodland and sent vast quantities of lumber down the lake to Montreal. In 1823, when the Champlain Canal opened, so did the New York City market, and Clark began supplying spars for the shipping trade there. In order to finish raw timber, he purchased a sawmill in Milton, and in 1825 expanded his properties to include a partnership in a general store in West Milton. By 1825, he was a grand juror in town, and he remained active in town affairs all his life. Clark married Lois Lyon from Colchester; they had six children. In 1830, he built the brick house that still stands on the east side of the Lamoille in West Milton to house his family, but only five years later, he bought the brick homestead in Milton Falls. There, he built the brick office building next door. Behind the two was a handsome gristmill with six sets of stones. As the woods were leveled, other mills overtook the importance of sawmills, but eventually, as the land turned to fields, the volume of water lessened, and waterpower was diminished. Milling was no longer as forward-looking as it had been, and Clark began to look elsewhere for investment and opportunity. Railroads were adding miles of track across the U.S. each year, and Clark saw the future. He entered into partnership with John Smith and Lawrence Brainard to build the Vermont and Canada line from Essex Jct. to Rouses Point. A few years later, with J. Gregory Smith, he built the Vermont Junction Railroad from Swanton to St. Johns, Quebec. Smith worked to get Mil-
Congratulations Milton on
JOSEPH CLARK.
Reprinted with permission from Milton, by Gary Furlong. Available from the publisher online at www.arcadiapublishing.com or by calling 888-313-2665.
LOOKING BACK ON A VISIONARY RESIDENT
ton on the line of the Central Vermont. A rail link and a station put Milton in a good position to become prosperous. With daily trains, larger markets for agricultural products were opened, and perishable foodstuffs were rushed to buyers in metropolitan areas. After the Civil War, in which 120 Milton men served, the town became a vacation destination. The trains brought visitors with comparable ease. With a beautiful location on Lake Champlain, and with ample supplies of fresh milk, meat, eggs and produce, Milton had everything for the perfect summer stay. Clark never rested on his reputation. The rest of his life, he remained on the boards of directors of railroads, going to offices in St. Albans until he was very old. He organized Farmers’ and Mechanics’ Bank in Burlington with John Peck. Clark was active in the Republican party and served three terms in the state senate. In 1849, he offered the town space for town meetings, and he gave financial support to three of Milton’s churches. After his death in 1879, his son, Jed P. Clark, remained in the family home on Main Street. Eventually, the property came to Joseph’s granddaughter, Kate. In 1916 she deeded it to the town to use for town business as long as we needed it. In the early 1990s, after the construction of new town offices on Bombardier Road, the Clark Memorial Building reverted to the heirs. In a way, that broke the bond between the Clark family and the town, but in a more important way, there is a historic connection that will never die. Without Joseph Clark’s energy and vision, we would hardly be the people that we are.
Holly Thayer and Courtney Racicot always knew the general history of their hometown. But it wasn’t until they helped piece together Milton’s past in photos that they felt connected to it. “It puts us in a different position, because we know where we come from,” Holly, 16, said. “People can say things about Milton, but this [history] is actually true.” Both Milton High School juniors, Holly and Courtney were among a small team of students, past and present, to help MHS history teacher Gary Furlong publish “Milton,” one of about 6,000 titles in the nationally-known “Images of America” series. The book includes more than 200 snapshots of life in Milton since its founding in 1763. Furlong, a 23-year resident and Milton Historical Society board member, began the work in March 2012. He found a talented, historically-inclined group of students to help with the biggest task: weeding through hundreds of photographs at the hot, stuffy School Street museum this past summer, many lacking identifying information. After 30 hours of this taxing work, the team organized the images by topic. As published, “Milton” has seven chapters showcasing businesses, life at the lake and disasters like fires and floods that often shape any town’s story. Many selections are of the old village and Main Street, the primary thoroughfare before Route 7 came along. A photo of the former town square, with its “cash store,” wheelwright shop and gristmill, with a horse-and-buggy outside, comes to life despite the black-and-white tone. Apparently, at one time, Catholics and Protestants would shop at different local markets, Furlong said. “You couldn’t go into Burlington without a lot of effort; people didn’t have automobiles, so everything was contained here,” Furlong said. The history teacher contrasted this with Milton’s contemporary identity as a bedroom community. But not that long ago, before the interstate was built, Milton was a destination town, with flatlanders from Boston and New York drawn to the Lake Champlain shore. “In the early 1900s, it was a pretty prosperous town,” Furlong said. “But you know life on the farm wasn’t that easy.”
Photo by Courtney Lamdin
PURCHASE “MILTON ” FOR $21.99 AT THE MUSEUM, 13 SCHOOL ST.; ON AMAZON.COM, AND AT BOTH JUNE 8 AND JULY 4 CELEBRATIONS. GARY FURLONG, PICTURED WITH MILTON STUDENTS HOLLY THAYER AND COURTNEY RACICOT, WILL ALSO DO A BOOK SIGNING AT BARNES AND NOBLE IN SO. BURLINGTON ON TUESDAY, JUNE 18 AT 4 P.M.
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Indeed, Furlong’s “Milton” pays tribute to agriculture with portraits of longtime farming families. Some pictured, like the Rowleys and Sandersons, continue the tradition today. The students enjoyed learning that Milton was once divided into 14 school districts in 1869. This included the “Young Ladies Select School” on River Street, specializing in teaching girls Greek and Latin. In their research, Courtney and Holly found dress codes, specific down to the acceptable haircuts for boys, and a 1900era letter-to-the-editor from a man bemoaning the lack of support for schools. Some things don’t change. Furlong hopes townspeople will learn much about Milton’s growth from his book. “We’re changing just like any other place, but the history is one of the things that connects us to the past,” he said. For Holly, knowing Milton’s history, fires and all, grew her appreciation. From all her work on the book, she most took away that even after 250 years, Miltonians still have a shared interest and identity. “We still reside around a common thing, and it’s the town. We still have the same culture,” she said. “People come and people leave, but there’s always the town … it symbolizes the people.”
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