Monument Monday - War Memorial, Manchester, Vermont

War Monument - Manchester, VT

From The Honor Roll Project at Nutfield Genealogy:

"The Honor Roll Project is an effort to transcribe and photograph military honor rolls.  The transcribed names make the soldiers available for search engines, so that descendants and family members can find them on the internet.  It is a simple, but very rewarding project."

This afternoon I took a ride into town to photograph and transcribe one of the war monuments in town.  Manchester was a gathering spot for soldiers during the American Revolution, especially in the days before the Battle of Bennington. The monument represents this with the figure of a Revolutionary War soldier at the top.  The monument, however, is dedicated to the men of four wars.

Facing the road at the base of the monument is the dedication plaque, stating that the monument was placed in 1905.  Working clockwise around the base are plaques list men who served in the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican War and the Civil War.  I've transcribed each panel below.

IN

MEMORY

OF

THE MEN

OF

MANCHESTER

WHO SERVED IN THE

REVOLUTIONARY WAR

WAR OF 1812

MEXICAN WAR

CIVIL WAR

___

ERECTED BY CITIZENS OF MANCHESTER

DEDICATED MAY 30 1905.

REVOLUTIONARY WAR

AMOS ALLEN DAN. ALLEN JONATHAN ALLEN SETH ALLEN ROBT. ANDERSON DANL. ARNOLD REUBEN BAKER MARTIN BARBER GIDEON BARBER ISAAC BARKER THOS. BARNEY BENJ. BEERS LEWIS BEEBE AICE BECKWITH WM. BEDELL NATHAN BEMAN HAYNES J. BEMAN WM. BENNET PETER BLACH TIMOTHY BLISS JARED BOORN NATHANIEL BOORN ARTHUR BOSTWICK NATHL. BOSTWICK THOS. BULL THOS. BULL JR ELIJAH BURTON JOSIAH BURTON CAL. CHAMBERLAIN DANL. CHAMPION CHRIS’R COLLINS NATHL. COLLINS ELISHA COOK JOHN DAGGETT JOB DEAN ELIAKIM DEMING WM. DREW DUNCAN DUNN ASA FARRAND PETER FRENCH WM. GOULD SILAS GOODRICH

JESSE GRAVES THADDEUS HARRIS BARNABAS HATCH CORNELIUS HAVENS JAS. HENNESSEY SIMEON HINE ELIJAH HOLLISTER JOHN HOWARD BENJ. HUNTLEY SAML. HULL JAS. JAMESON DANL. JONES DAVID LEE JAS. LEWIS ROBT. LOGGAN BENJ. McINTYRE JOS. McINTYRE RICH’D McINTYRE ISAAC MARKS AARON MASON JACOB MEAD PHILIP MEAD TRUMAN MEAD RUFUS MUNSON THADDEUS MUNSON JONATHAN ORMSBY GIDEON ORMSBY DANL. ORMSBY GEORGE OLDS JACOB ODELL JOHN PAGE TIMOTHY PEARL STEPHEN PEARL ABEL PETTIBONE SAML. PETTIBONE SETH PETTIBONE PETER PIXLEY FELIX POWELL MARTIN POWELL TRUMAN POWELL BENJ. PURDY REUBEN PURDY

DANL. PURDY DAVID PURDY PHILIP REYNOLDS AMOS RICHARDSON ANDREW RICHARDSON NATHAN RICHARDSON BENJ. ROBERTS CHRIS’R ROBERTS JOHN ROBERTS JOHN ROBERS JR JOEL ROSE JESSE SAWYER AARON SEXTON GEORGE SEXTON JONATHAN SEXTON DANL. SHAW JOSIAH SHELDON GEORGE SMITH JOHN SMITH NATHAN SMITH STEPHEN SMITH PELETIAH SOPER SOLOMON SOPER MOSES SPERRY PRENTICE STORES PELEG SUNDERLAND WALLACE SUTHERLAND SAML. SUTHERLAND TIMOTHY SKINNER BENJ. VAUGHN JAS. VAUGHN JEREMIAH WAIT SAML. WALKER AZEL WASHBURN STEPHN WASHBURN ISAAC WHELPLEY JEREMIAH WHELPLEY JOHN WHITE ENOCH WOODBRIDGE

WAR OF 1812

ROBERT ANDERSON ALVAH BISHOP JOHN BLACK ELIJAH BURTON JOSEPH BURTON LEMUEL COLLINS BENJAMIN DIBBLE GURDON EATON SAMUEL FOLSOM ABRAM C. FOWLER DAVID GLAZIER JOHN HARRIS APOLLOS HARVEY JABEZ HAWLEY TRUMAN HILL SERENUS KILBURN TRUMAN KIMPTON ELIJAH LITTLEFIELD	MATHEW LOGAN BENJAMIN MUNSON JEREMIAH ODELL DANIEL OLDS JOHN R. PETTIBONE JOHN S. PETTIBONE DAVID REYNOLDS JOHN W. ROBINSON JOHN H. RULE LEONARD SARGEANT SIALS SMITH BURTON STRAIGHT NATHAN THOMPSON SAMUEL THOMPSON JOHN C. WALKER THOMAS WAIT ELIPHALET WELLS JAMES WHELPLEY
SAMUEL R. WHIDDEN

MEXICAN WAR

NICHOLS BARNARD
	PIERREPONT RAYMOND
		BENJAMIN S. ROBERTS

CIVIL WAR

W.H. AXTELL R.E. BALDWIN J.E. BATCHELDER JED BELL D.W. BENNETT H.T. BENNETT S. BENNETT W.K. BENNETT TRUMAN BENTLEY W.A. BLACK COLLINS BLACKMER J.C. BLACKMER A.B. BOYNTON CHAS. BROWN HENRY BROWN W.G. BROWN C.A. BUNDY NELSON BURNHAM S.E. BURNHAM C. BURLINGAME I.M. BURTON C..J. BURTON EDW. CAMPBELL W.S. CHAPIN C.W. CHAPMAN BRENTON CHELLIS H.C. CLAYTON G.H. COBURN S.H. COBURN F.O. CONNOR E.W. COOK F.W. COOK E.M. CUMMINGS HENRY CUMMINGS H.P. CUMMINGS S.A. CUMMINGS WM. CUMMINGS W.H. H. CUMMINGS H.C. DAWSON JOS. DEMARS G.H. DICKINSON C.P. DUDLEY

D.H.DYER FAYETTE DYER T.B. EATON D.W. EDDY MARK FARNSWORTH D.O. FELT GEO. FLEMING JEROME GLEASON MYRON GLEASON. S. GLEASON R.C. GRAY JOS. GRENIER J.H. HALEY M. HANLON C.M. HARD M.D. HASKINS L.H. HEMENWAY JAS. HICKS C.H. HILL MYRON JAMESON SMITH JAMESON MORT KEARSE TOM KEARSE A..J. KILBURN S. KILBURN J.U. LEONARD ALBERT McCOY CHAS. MEARS J.B. MUNSON S.L. NORCROSS ELIJAH PHILLIPS GEO. PHILLIPS CHAS. A. PIERCE E.W. PIERCE C.H. POND HARRISON PRINDLE CALVIN REED DEAN REED JOHN REED V. REAULO JOHN REYNOLDS

T. REYNOLDS C.H. RIDOUT B.K. ROBERTS RICH ROBERTS S.H. SEAVER G.H. SESSIONS G.W. SESSIONS, JR. C.G. SHELDON D.K. SIMONDS RICHARD SKINNER FRANK SMITH W.H. SMITH A.B. STRAIGHT G.H. SWIFT H.W. SYKES NATH’L TOWSLEY G.P. UTLEY M.W. UTLEY J.M. VANDERLIP JOHN VAUGHN C.HH. WALKER T.M. WAITE W.W. WARNER S.H. WESTCOTT A.A. WHEELER DAN’L WHEELER O.O. WHITMAN H. WHITTON H. WICHTMAN N.A. WICHTMAN W.C. WILSON C.L. WOODWARD W.H. WOODWARD C. WYMAN C.M. WYMAN H.A. WYMAN M.D. WYMAN M.G. WYMAN W.M. WYMAN H.D. YOUNG O.M. BELL

Surname Saturday – Davis and the Snow Summers

I realized the other day that I haven’t blogged for a while.  For the past few days, I’ve been trying to think of a topic.  This afternoon, my wife called me from the top of Bromley Mountain in Peru.  “It’s snowing!” she said gleefully.  “The top of the mountain is white!”

Snow?  In May?  Memorial Day weekend?

I was instantly reminded of an event that I learned about in history class in junior-high.  The Year Without a Winter.

In 1816 the weather in Vermont was cold enough during the summer that crops failed and ponds froze over.  It snowed the first week of June, and the end of August saw frost hit, killing even more crops.  The cause of the strange weather was thought to be linked to the eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia the year before, which spread dust and ash into the air, eventually leading to the lowered temperatures on this side of the world. [1]

What, I wondered, were my ancestors doing during that year?

Solomon Davis and his wife Hannah, who brought the family west from New Hampshire in 1803, would have been raising, along with their other children, their new baby daughter.  Hannah Davis, who shared her mother’s name, was born in May of 1816 in Londonderry, Vermont.  Solomon, his son, grandson, great-grandson, and so on were farmers.  The family remained in Londonderry until my grandfather, Solomon Wesley, passed away in 1996, one-hundred and ninety-three years after the family arrived in town.

I can only imagine what the farmers in 1816 must have been going through, planting crops to feed their families, only to see those crops freeze and die.  Then I was given a reminder of Vermont resilience.  My aunt, as I typed this post, posted a photo on Facebook.  The photo was taken in a town near Londonerry, on May 25^th, 1967, or exactly 46 years before today's snow.  The image shows snow-covered fields with snow-covered mountains in the background.  Her comment: “My dad planted potatoes the next day.”

Apparently both the first and last Davis men to live in Londonderry had something in common.

[1] http://www.virtualvermont.com/history/1816.html