We’ve been busy this fall with events that help tell the story of Monkton’s past. We are thrilled that Cal Hopwood, of NEAT TV, recorded our most recent events:
- Cindy Walcott led a tour of Beers Cemetery, telling the stories of some of our early residents and sharing information about the appropriate care of gravestone.
- Ian Gramling, our vice-president, dressed in period gear to tell the story of Tory Rocks, Monkton’s only significant participation in the Revolutionary War.
The recordings are available under the Calendar tab.
We received several important donations from community members:
- Olive Phillips donated an original record book from School District #6 (Morgan School) from the 1840’s to 1890’s.It is now on display in the museum.
- After Bill Hoyinski of Shoreham recently passed away, his wife donated a box of letters and other records from Johnson Finney [1775-1859], who lived in Monkton. Mr. Finney wrote a wonderful manuscript “Sketches of History of the Early Settlers of Monkton in Addison County State of Vermont” which is held at the Sheldon Museum in Middlebury. That document was an important source for our East Monkton book. Our team hopes to transcribe this manuscript in the near future.
Upcoming, we will hold a Scanning Evening on November 17 from 7:00-8:30. If you have old photographs, diaries, letters, documents from our town’s past, we would love to scan them for our collection! Your history is our history! Pictures from the 1950s are just as welcome as older documents.
If you support collecting Monkton’s stories to enrich our future, please consider donating here, or by Venmo.
The comment that “Tory Rocks” is Monkton’s only significant event during the revolutionary war is incorrect.
At the end of his sort Carleton’s Raid in November 1778, a special sortie was made Monkton (Barnumtown) from the falls at Vergennes, destroying the village (which was already known for producing iron) and netting several prisoners.
To quote from Capt. Christopher Carleton’s journal;
Monday the 9th: “… Captain Jones with his twenty men had been detached agreeable to my directions to destroy the Township of Monckton which lay Eight miles back [from the falls] parallel to the Lake my principal motive for destroying this Township tho’ it delay’d me twelve hours was because I Knew it to be a remarkable rich one and a Nest of the greatest Rebels in that part of the Country besides if I could be fortunate enough to Catch Wintress Howick, the Indian Interpreter the only person who negociates the Congress business with the Villiages in Canada from thence I should do an esential service. At 4 ooClock Captian Jones return’d with Several Prisoners of which Howick was one he destroy’d a Considerable Quantity of Arms Ammunition Grain Forrage &c and brought off twenty four head of Cattle.” Carleton’s Raid, pgs. 91-92.
— Paul Washington (co-author of Carleton’s Raid, first published in 1977)