 As a teacher, I love making connections between things that people would read in an actual history textbook and things that my students can look outside the classroom window or walk down the street and say, wow, those two or three events are connected. So what you're going to see is some research that I've been doing or that I did for my second book and that's partially for my third book as well. So, real quick, classroom teacher, show of hands. Anybody want to raise your hand if you know a Revolutionary War event that happened fairly close to this area? To this area? To this area. Yeah. Val Cor Island? Okay, Val Cor Island, yeah. Val Cor Island isn't that far away across the lake. Good. Anybody else? A Revolutionary War event that happened... Tachandaroga? Okay, Tachandaroga. It's in New York. We associated Vermont history quite a bit. Isn't he talking about all of New York too? Yeah, Val Cor is on the New York side of the lake. Yeah. Battle of Saratoga. Battle of Saratoga? Yeah. So, I was shocked to learn that there is a lot of Revolutionary War history that happens right here in Vermont. So, the battle of Bennington actually didn't happen in Vermont. It's about five or six miles into New York. There's the battle of Huberton, which happens kind of southeast of Tachandaroga and Mount Vernon. But when I started to do a lot of research, I found that my home area is connected to the Revolution. And there are some characters that we read about in the history books that are in this area. And it's not just Ethan Allen or Ira Allen. Benedict Arnold, Ben Franklin. All of those guys are up here in the area. So, as a high school teacher, I do occasionally have to show a couple of different things. I want to give this book a credit. Benedict Arnold's Navy. This is the book that talks about the Battle of Algor Island. And it starts to give Benedict Arnold a little bit more credit than he's been due. I think a lot of people identify Benedict Arnold as the most notorious traitor in American history. And that's correct. But let's just say that Benedict Arnold's contributions to the American Revolution got the colonials to the point where they could win the war. And that's a point that I'll make a little bit more that you'll see as we go through the presentation. I also want to use a term very quickly. You're going to hear me say it a couple of times, nerd mode. So, I'm a nerd and I celebrate. I am up at 3, 4, 5 o'clock in the morning, sometimes going through files or reading historical texts. And I can't help it, I love it. And I hope I inspire my students to do the same thing. If you guys are doing research or if there's a research vein that you've fallen in love with, like latch onto it. If it's genealogy, take it as far as you can. Because discovering the past has been a joy for me. And I hope other people can enjoy it as much as I do. So, Northern Vermont in the War of 1812, that's my first book, The Hidden History of Franklin County. That's the book that just barely came out. And my next book is going to be Northern Vermont and the American Revolution. And that's really the chapter, the second or third chapter of the book that I just wrote. But now the history press has agreed to take a look at it in book form. So, as a class and teacher, I know a lot of people kind of knock education every once in a while. These are the standards that I would apply my history research to in the classroom. Inquiry, problem-solving, history, geography, civics, economics. You're going to get a lot of these today. You may not get too many of these. But I just wanted you guys to see this as a classroom teacher. Taxpayers should see how history teachers are taking research and applying it to the classroom. So, some of the research questions that I started off with, with Swanton so close to Lake Champlain, Valport Island, what role could it have played in the American Revolution? What sources are available? How could I research this and find out what role Swanton played? And should Swanton's role in the American Revolution receive a little more attention? I'm using Swanton as sort of a focal point for northern Vermont or northwestern Vermont. But you'll see that there's a lot that goes on. And if I had three hours, I'd love to share all of my information with you. So, as a class and teacher, I just wanted to show you some of the things that I do with my students. Anybody know what that is? It's a flint and a steel. Yeah, flint and steel. So, it's a fire square. My students go outside without matches because matches aren't invented until after the Revolution. My students try to start fires with birch bark, cat tail fuzzies, stuff like that. And generally speaking, I'll try to give the students the backstory of the American Revolution and starting fires. And it's something that they enjoy. They enjoy doing this a lot more than taking the test. So, real quick, I'll also try to use maps as much in the classroom as possible. The United States or what will become the United States. This is Quebec, owned by France until the French and Indian War. This is the British colonies. It's like a radio interview. And all of this changes after the French and Indian War. And England gets the American colonies. I also want to plug in, if you'd like to read, there are a lot of folks about the American Revolution. Bellico is one of the best. In his book, he nicely sets up two primary sources of a lot of different locations. So, obviously during the American Revolution, a lot is going to happen in Boston. Stuff happens in New York, Quebec City, Montreal. Well, if you sort of center that, you know, Lake Champlain is here and there's a lot of the American Revolution that is kind of unknown that happens in our neck of the woods. So, Skeensboro. Philip Skeen is a gentleman who's down at the southern part of Lake Champlain. He's on the New York side. The New York settlement system was a little bit different than what New Hampshire had. It was a menoral system where basically you had one wealthy character set up and then a lot of people would sort of pay their tax so they would live on his land. New Hampshire had a different arrangement where it was more about private property. And through that private property, that's how Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys became somewhat upset with the idea that New York might actually have control of the Green Mountains. So, maybe this shows it a little bit better, but Skeen or Skeensboro was down here. This would be in the location of Fort Ticonderoga and this is the town point here. So, much of the research that I've been doing is up here and I want to uncover, with all of the stuff happening down here around Ticonderoga, what's happening up in our neck of the woods. By the way, any questions? If anybody has any questions during the presentation? You shout over French and Indian War. I want to ask you this. It seemed to me this fellow, Robert Rogers, he captured Detroit for the English against the French. And it seemed to me he jumped in the Missiscoy River outside of Highgate to pioneer Canoe all the way to Detroit through the Great Lakes to take the city. So, I don't have a lot of information about anything that would have happened out west. I know Highgate and Franklin and Missiscoy are directly related to Rogers' raid because that's when he goes up to Odenac and goes after the Abneg here. So, I don't have a lot of information about it. Any other questions? So, again, just to kind of... So, we are here and we're giving this presentation, or you're part of this presentation, right kind of in the center of the lake. Well, Schemesboro, Forty, St. John's. This is an area that's going to be big during the American Revolution. And then, Swanton, it was actually settled during the French and Indian War. And some of the folks who set up in Swanton during the French and Indian War or after the French and Indian War, they're in Swanton about the time to start the American Revolution. So, I don't own a boat, but I love naval history. The naval history of Lake Champlain is amazing. One of the things that Ethan Allen is interested in a little bit, but something that Benedict Arnold is very interested in are some of the boats that are on Lake Champlain at the time. This is not a military boat. In the previous slide, that fellow Philip Slum in the mineral system, he owned so much land in New York, and he was so wealthy that he was actually able to build this boat. And at the time, in the late 1760s and the early 1770s, early 1770s, this is called the Catherine. And Benedict Arnold is very interested, not really in Fort Ticonderoga, but he's interested in controlling Fort Ticonderoga, the cannon that are at Fort Ticonderoga, and the boats that are on Lake Champlain. Another way that I try to get my students involved is I ask them to imagine some of this stuff. And this is just some artwork of what they would imagine some of the boats on Lake Champlain would look like. Another great book, this is a children's book, but it does do a great job of showing where the British units were and how big the British units were at the start of the American Revolution. So Montreal is up here. This is Quebec City, Crown Point, Fort Ticonderoga. This particular book, Quebec 1775, it gives the total number of British soldiers at every outpost. Fort Ticonderoga was actually not a very well-maned outpost. I think there's only 50 or so British soldiers when Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys and Benedict Arnold take it. But this also gives some of the other. There are about 100 soldiers at St. John. Again, that's just north of us. 50 at Champlain Company, and then about 250 in Montreal. So again, as I start doing my research and I see stuff like this, I'm like, well, Swanson's up here. Is there any chance that Swanson or northwestern Vermont is linked to what's happening in the Revolution? Could you focus on that? Oh, sorry. Fort Ticonderoga, how many people have been? That is pretty neat to go and see how the fort has been reconstructed and to try to imagine what it would have been like 250 years ago. So the first place that my research started was with the Swanson Town History Book. Most of your communities probably have a town history book, whether or not it's Burlington and the Gazetteer or Colchester. I think Colchester has its own town history book. I started with the Swanson Town History Book. And then the Swanson Town History Book, as you read through the Swanson Town History Book, there were a couple of references to people who were around during the American Revolution. And with my students, I would highlight some of that information. And to give history as due, the other thing that I try to emphasize is the Native presence. So up in Swanson, the Atmaniki community, the Swanson History Book, through moral histories, it's written in 1871. So it's almost 100 years, or about 100 years after the American Revolution. So the folks who wrote the Swanson History Book, they're actually relying on oral histories. They're talking to some of the elderly people in town, and these are the names of the Atmaniki that they come up with who were in Swanson about the time of the American Revolution. I just think it's interesting, and I think it's nice for my students to see that when we talk about the American Revolution, we can also talk about the Native presence. Okay, Founding Fathers. There's no, even though all of us have cell phones and we can take out our cell phones and take a picture really, really fast, the only reason why we have the likeness of any of the Founding Fathers is why. They were wealthy enough to have fortunes taken. Yeah, they had the money to be able to pay somebody to paint them or sketch them. And then those paintings or those sketches are what survived, and that's how we know what Ben Franklin looks like in George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. We don't know what a lot of the average people or average persons would have looked like, and that's also something that I try to get my students to imagine. So in Swanson, probably the person you're going to hear more about in this presentation than anybody else is the guy with the name of Simon Metcalf, and in some sources it's called Metcalf. Metcalf is the actual name. There's a reference in the Swanson history book to him owning a piece of land called Metcalf Island, and he does business with somebody called James Robertson, and then there's some other information. So some students who are artistically inclined, I would say, hey, since George Washington has a portrait, since John Adams has a portrait, Simon Metcalf doesn't. You want to try to imagine what Simon Metcalf would have looked like. So this student was kind of on the young side, but that's what my student thought Simon Metcalf might look like. Now this student knows that I do these presentations. I have permission to use the image. This student has also said, I think I want to change that picture of Simon Metcalf to make it look a little more 17 or 1800s. So that guy, James Robertson, he's a businessman up in Quebec. We don't know what he looked like, but I asked that student to try their hand again. It was the next year later, and now we have a pretty good image of what James Robertson would have looked like. And one more in the Swanson History Book. There's this guy by the name of General Bailey, and General Bailey is over in the area of Newbury on the eastern side of Vermont. So my students now have, through their own work, faces that they can apply to certain names that I'm learning are associated with northern Vermont history and the American Revolution. So Metcalf probably made his first beginning in this neighborhood as a trader. So later on in the Swanson History Book, it mentions that there's a place called Metcalf Island. So the northern part of Lake Champlain. Somebody may be familiar with the location up in New York of Rousins Point. This would be Albert over here. And over here you have Swanson. So there's a place on our Google Maps today called Metcalf Island. So immediately as a classroom teacher and with my students, I'm asking, all right guys, ladies, why do we have this place called Metcalf Island? And Metcalf Island is a remnant of the folks who were around during the American Revolution. So even Google Maps can be a source that we can use to make some connections. So then I got to be thinking, well, if he has an island named after him, is there anything else in the area that could have Metcalf's name on it? Anybody know where I'm going with this? There's a Metcalf pond in Fletcher. Metcalf pond. So by the way, this is an aerial view. My cousin, Armand Messier, with northern Vermont aerial photography, he has a drone. And this is what the front or the top of Mrs. Floyd Bay looks like. Metcalf Island would be literally here in the center. At the end, and this would be a location where he was trading with the natives. Also, I mentioned at the beginning of the presentation that I'm a fan of my administration, that I get along with my administration. Dan Aumer and Jay Hartman at MBU, they encourage me and some of the other social studies teachers to take kids out on field trips as much as possible, so that they can see some of these locations. And there's this place-based education that's something that I'm really in favor of, because if you ask a student to go on a field trip, they're probably going to remember that field trip more than taking notes or taking a quiz or doing a test. So Metcalf pond. I'll get to Metcalf pond. So Simon Metcalf was a map maker in upstate New York. Many of you been through Swanton or in Swanton. So this would be the area where merchants rose here. This would be where the bridge is. And then this road would take you over to Albert and Rouse's point. So Metcalf was a map maker. This is a map. Nobody knows where this map is today, but this is a map that was printed that shows what Swanton and the Mississippi River looked like in 1772. So the original question was, does Swanton have any association with the American Revolution? And now we have a map that shows exactly what Swanton looked like right before the revolution broke out. I was trying to find out where that map actually was, but we don't have it in Minnesota. So one of the things I would do with my students is I would ask them just to observe this map. If you guys went to my classroom, I would project this and then I would say write everything down. And some students would be like, well, I don't know. There's a lot happening there, but they're immediately, almost always they notice that Mississippi is actually spelled differently on this map than it is on a lot of other maps. We finish it with a K, right? But this is QUV. And then if you're observing from the table with a map long enough to notice that there's a key over here or an explanation. So, explanation. So it's hard to see, but a lot of these buildings actually have numbers that are associated with them. And now we actually know based on analyzing the 1772 map what some actual buildings were as the American Revolution is about to break out. Any questions? Do you use genealogy as well? I have a little bit, yes. But I've only focused in on the Barney genealogy and trying to selfishly I can't get beyond the Barney genealogy. Is that Toluca Falls? Is that where the dam is now? Yeah, so I think it's pronounced Pakwa-Hungpa Falls and that's literally where the dam is in Swanson. Yes. And so I want to show you something which I think is pretty cool. So that's where the dam is. That's the dam in Swanson. This is the Google Maps view. The Valley Union High School is up in the top right-hand corner. That's not within walking distance but we can take a bus right there in about five minutes. And I showed this to a group of students when I was experimenting with what I could do with old maps and what I could do with new maps and I just want to show you something that my students responded fairly positively to. So that's the band in the Mississippi River. This is one of these drone photos. That is the dam and the small bridge that goes over in the Scampers area. Google Maps view, 1772. Was Simon Metcalf a pretty good map maker? Yeah. Awesome. It's not exact but it's probably better work than I could do for my students. I mean, especially the path. Look at the path in the Mississippi River. It's almost exact. And you weren't using an area view? No. Absolutely. So the falls have been somewhat altered since 1772? Yeah. So I would love to do some archaeology in the area of the falls but the problem that Burlington has the problem that Manuski has, Colchester, Swanton there's been so much development in these areas that anything that is in this area has probably been because that's not the first bridge. There's like three or four bridges that have been there as well. And then there was not the Barney family, my family but there was Barney Marble Mill which is down on the right-hand side and they developed this entire area. So the idea that you or I could do any archaeology and find out, like I would want to do that but I don't know what we would find because it's been gone over so much. Roads before the American Revolution are not in good shape. They're like walking paths more than anything else. But you'll notice that Metcalf included these roads on this map. These roads really don't connect well to any other location in Vermont. They're logging trails because Metcalf owns a sawmill. One goes up into the area of the Mrs. Floyd Day but with Google Maps and with PowerPoint one of the things that you can do is you can overlay. So my students are definitely more familiar with the view on the right-hand side. So take a look at the left side of the Metcalf map and then take a look at the Google Maps view. One of the things that I was playing around with and my students said that they thought this worked fairly well. So I've blown up that curve in the Mrs. Floyd River. See that little yellow line that's basically where the bridge is assuming that that's where the road coming up from that building was assumed that that's the sawmill. Does everybody see it? So watch as I go through the next couple of slides because what I try to teach my students is you can literally dissect where these people were walking almost to the foot as you move this forward. That yellow building I'm assuming that's going to be Metcalf Sawmill and this is some of the artwork that is featured in my current book Hidden History of Franklin County. I'll just say a comment about this. This sawmill gets burned during the American Revolution but we really don't know by who. Commerce is between the people and this area and what is in Quebec area? So did everybody hear the question how much commerce is between Swanton at the time it was called Cratsburg? Because this is a New York land patent. It's not a New Hampshire grant land patent. And the Quebec area. My guess is that Metcalf is not trading with anybody to the south. He's not trading here. He's not trading with Ticonderoga. He's trading north. He's trading all of his goods with Quebec. The Richelieu River is that small point that goes north of Alberg and Rouse's point. Anything he cuts as far as trees are going up and down the Richelieu River. New York and that trading post on Metcalf's island. A dollar amount? I don't know. But the lumber would have been very valuable. Our island purchased a lot of land up in Swanton. Did you not? What time period was this after the time that you're talking about right now? Not to give too much of a plot book and Glenn's book at the end of that book It's good. There was one of the final chapters where Ebenezer Allen has to go into Swanton because the Abnecki have returned. They had left during the war and it's during that time period that Ira Allen must have purchased the land. That's some research that I'm finishing up right now. We're talking, so if this is 1772 your question probably points to 1784, 1785 somewhere in that range. So we'll just finish building some roads here on the Google Maps here and literally you can see where the roads would parallel and my students can easily walk some of these locations and see where the revolution was unfolding and then one more. It's not 100% accurate but I just think it's a way for the students to sort of pay attention when we go outside. All right, Metcalfe Pawn. So it's also mentioned in the Swanson History book that the name Metcalfe is on Metcalfe Pawn, so if we just apply a little bit of space to this where we are, Ebenezer Allen Homestead is off the bottom of this map Isle of Mon Elver North Hero Macquam Metcalfe Island and trading post would be up here Metcalfe Pawn is the way down there. So just from now I'm making an assumption somebody could do some research and prove me wrong but I'm assuming that that's the same Metcalfe. There's one other bit of research that it was just a week ago that I it was like a white ball going off. Has anybody ever heard of Metcalfe Hill? It's in the eastern part of Chittenden County South of Metcalfe Pawn there's a Metcalfe Hill and I haven't done any research on that yet on Google Maps it says it's in the area of Jericho or near Johnson and I need to do some research I wouldn't be surprised if Metcalfe is logging all of this area that he is at least down at Metcalfe Island and then making some other research that we're doing on time. We're going to hold this to an hour so we've got about 24 minutes so if there's any questions feel free to answer So all of this stuff that I mentioned folks the Revolutionary War hasn't even started yet and we already have a pretty good idea of what Swanson looked like in 1775 So Metcalfe made maps and something that the homestead has directly tied to is the New Hampshire Grants, the Allam family and what was happening at the time Metcalfe was from New York New York also had its land claims in the New Hampshire Grants Albany County and Charlottes County were the two names that they gave This is a map that Metcalfe made in 1772 which shows what the New York land claims work and all kind of condensed this Dan O'Neill with directly the homestead here he had actually given me the link to the language of what the Pransburg town charter was so it wasn't called Swanson back then and Metcalfe's name is all over that document so I'm going to blow up this map a little bit so that I would ask my students some research questions at this point in time is there any chance that Metcalfe was in the the Sisqoi area before 1768 do other maps exist there's some research that the Canadian border was actually chopped into the forest in 1771-1772 and that Metcalfe they've actually been making money off of that something that I think is a very touchy subject to bring up now but I think even though it's touchy it's something that we just bring up and talk about because we all have views of American history if Metcalfe is a New Yorker there is a substantial chance that Metcalfe owned slaves in Pransburg or in Swanson now I say that's touchy and some of you may think well whatever but I think a lot of us have a view sort of a civil war view that slavery was in the south that slavery really didn't happen in New England that's just not true we got rid of it sooner or earlier than the states of the south did but I'm not saying that Metcalfe did have slaves in Swanson but he does own a slave or his family owns a slave in the 1790 census so Phillip Skeen owned slaves the guy of Gillibrand in New York he owned slaves is there a possibility that Metcalfe owned slaves there's no proof but my guess would be that he probably did would he have enslaved Abneckys? that didn't work out so well because of the disease because of the disease factor as well but he did employ a lot of French Canadian and Abneckys at the solid name on any other landfacts and towns and that's just another so to take a look when you blow these things up you sort of lose resolution a little bit but you can see where Pratsburg is here and I'm just fascinated by this town, Townsend that probably is in the location of like Sheldon, Amersburg if you look at the land grant history, Metcalfe's name is actually on that land grant as well so any questions about yep what is the source or more than the most source of them this is Coyle River does it go well up into Connecticut? I'm assuming this area here would be the towns of like Troy and Jay and it crosses the border this is fairly accurate it actually crosses the border in a couple of different locations and the town of Franklin which is much closer to the the Mississippi Bay Area actually isn't much of a river at all it's a very very thin creek but when you get into Swanton you have a lot more of these small tributaries coming in there wouldn't have been much of a trade or commerce coming down there canoes even this time of year could have made them maybe they would have been able to move logs no between factories even this portion of the Mississippi River right here in the Mississippi Bay this time of year there are portions of the river that are coming up in the time of year the two waters are so low I actually saw that this time of year right you may want to repeat the question your land grants that compass one convert to New Hampshire to make it as part of the Vermont so the question is at what point did the New York land grants basically get converted to Vermont so something that I'm researching quite a lot right now is when that transfer happens and I don't know how much individuals in the room know about Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys but that land individuals that land owner that I mentioned earlier, Philip Scheme apparently Allen actually had a very good relationship with Philip Scheme even though there's others that he literally goes to war with down in the area of Bennington Philip Scheme had the chance to have him arrested a couple of times and didn't and there's one instance where actually Ira Allen is coming up here and I found one source where Ira Allen actually left from Philip Scheme's estate to come up before they built the block house that becomes Fort Frederick I think is the name of Philip Scheme so Philip Scheme for whatever reason to answer your question though it's not until after the revolution that it gets settled all the way up here Metcalf is in and out of Swanton during the Revolutionary so again with my students I'll take the Google Maps for you notice those lines I'm going to come back to those lines in a second those lines are on that Metcalf map that I just showed you all right, Lexington and Concord that happens down in the area of Boston the shots heard around the world those shots have a real significant impact on the flow of history up here so defining local history this is something that I mentioned with my students I'll just ask you guys if you were a teacher how far or how close would you define something as local is it within the boundaries of your town is it within the boundaries of your town five miles, ten miles what's local today without local fare I should find a perfection excellent point I left St. Alden's 30 minutes before I got here this is local so my students often say five to ten miles they'll say something's local truly local if it happens five to ten miles so as a teacher uncovering some of this stuff I go into nerd mode trying to let them know that there's revolutionary war stuff that happens within five or ten miles of where they're being taught so this is the northern section of the lake if you get into revolutionary war history there's a point of fur in upstate New York there was actually a revolutionary war a small fork that was built by a loyalist he ends up changing sides but it's in this location number two when the American Revolution starts Benedict Arnold, he takes that ship called the Catherine from Fort Ticonderoga and the Skeensboro he goes up Lake Champlain into the Richelow River and he steals another ship up at St. John Ethan Allen kind of follows him and Ethan Allen is up at St. John just a little bit later on Arnold is back at an island that is a fort now today it's called the Fort Lennox but in history books he won't refer to it as Ile Noir has anybody ever heard of Remember Baker yeah he has what do you know about do you know anything about Remember Baker he's a cousin of Ethan Allen yeah I don't know what the exact family relation is but they were together in certain aspects during the Revolutionary War when they were fighting in that area so this is right after the taking of Fort Ticonderoga Ticonderoga is May 10 so throughout June and July the American forces are patrolling all in here and Remember Baker is running spy missions all up here on the Canadian border he's in Isle of Mont he's in Elberg in one instance and he's visiting Simon Metcalf there's a letter it's at the Northern Illinois Digital Library you can find these primary sources online and Remember Baker actually visits Metcalf in transfer and then there's another guy Bays Wells he goes on a spy mission up to Quebec to see exactly what the British defenses are and he actually comes around and he keeps a journal and he mentions that he's at Metcalf's at the end of that spy mission Metcalf gives him a canoe and they're able to go back down to the southern part of Lake Champlain, Fort Ticonderoga Crown Point so now if I'm with my students we can't go into Canada for two, three and four because of COVID but one, five and six are a fair game because those are all the trips that my students can take so the two ships Liberty, that was Catherine, the ship that Arnold steals up in Quebec is the Enterprise and this is some artwork that is in the Hidden History of Franklin County, this is from an in-view teacher this is the Bays Wells spy mission that's supposed to be one of the curves and the Sistoy River as the American spies are leaving Quebec so going back to Google Maps again how much stuff happens local but we got to number six Baker returns to Isle of Mont we've invaded Canada yet like the Canadian invasion isn't unfolding Bays Wells actually comes back up to the Mississippi Bay Area number 10 the USS Liberty delivers a spy up to an area just north of William Hill Point remember Baker, dies he's the first death of the American invasion of Quebec he dies about six miles north of Elver and it's a fairly grisly gruesome grisly account does anybody know how he dies? he was beheaded they don't know if it was Abnaki but it was English Allied Indians north of the border and then 12 Isle of Mont the entire American invasion of Quebec lands on Isle of Mont in August of 1775 it's about 1200 soldiers and when they're going to invade Quebec they use Isle of Mont as the sort of super highway up through as a baying to go north so any questions? yeah so Alan he tried to take Montreal but he only had like 30 minutes so Alan is a part of this invasion he comes up after the main invasion force and they take this island that's Isle of Mont and then St. John is just a little bit further north for whatever reason Alan tries to take Montreal on his own with 30 guys, 60 guys and he ends up being captured so some other questions that I would have my students tackle at this point in time is there any other information on those Remember Baker missions? and maybe Remember Baker is a good one to focus in on because he has such a memorable name Remember Baker just as a name that anybody can sort of recall Was he with Ethan Allen when the Arnold Storm I believe Remember Baker, the question was was he with Ethan Allen when Arnold and Alan took Ticonderoga I believe Remember Baker is actually up here in the settled land and the Alan send word to Baker to come to the fort and I think he's part of the group that sort of secures Crown Point and I think I was just reading that Warnor might have been Warnor? Yes Warnor Is there any information on the Canadian archives if you go online that Canadian archives are great they've got a ton of material that has been digitized The Metcalfe family Simon Metcalfe's wife name is Canter He has an 8 year old son at the time George I haven't even done any research on them you mentioned genealogy I think would it be possible to do some genealogy on the Metcalfe family and see if Catherine or George Metcalfe had any information Going back to the Atmecky Is there any oral histories that the Atmecky would have Bay's Wells Physical Geography The men assigned to the Liberty and the Enterprise Is there any way that we could find out the names of the guys who were on these two boats on Lake Champlain So this is a view of Mississboy Bay This is some of Arman's drone footage and something I can bring my students to this location This is about a mile south of the Canadian port and it is about 10 minutes from MVU So this is one of the spy missions This would be the view of Mississboy doing the Bay's Wells spy mission You guys have seen that view and that's when they'll point in Albert And my students, the Metcalfe and the MVU faculty members have said that we could use their property Man assigned to the Enterprise Is there any way 250 years can we look back and find the names of the people answers yes Northern Illinois Digital Library They actually have documents that have been digitized for the officers for the men who are at least assigned to the Enterprise and these are the men who are assigned to the Enterprise So this is a lot more than a social studies student in high school would want to take on but who knows maybe a student wants to make some extra credit maybe they want to do a little bit of research There's a name that they could go into Ancestry.com and they could see if there's any military record All of these individuals were either off the coast of Illinois or very near Albert So And this is from May to July So we're at 252 Anybody remember which individual that was? Was that Simon Metcalfe? That was Jacob Bailey That was Jacob Bailey, good So this is our image of Jacob Bailey This is a quote from one of Jacob Bailey's letters from Jacob Bailey to George Washington So another thing that I can emphasize with my students is you're not in the middle of nowhere the place that you were raised was the content of letters between George Washington and some of the other founding fathers So there's a road Jacob Bailey over on the eastern side of the state wants to build a road from the Connecticut River to Mrs. Floyd Day Do you remember those lines that I asked you to remember from the earlier map? Well, this is the Metcalfe map Metcalfe is the landowner up here You'll notice that there's a line that kind of comes to this area here Real quick history question I'm sure everybody knows this What was the original name of the Manuski River? The Onion River So this path here it's not really a road, it comes down to the Onion River location This one here, where does it appear to be going? It's not too long Jacob Bailey is over on the eastern side of the lake So we've got this guy Jacob Bailey He's mentioned in the Metcalfe story sort of between Bailey and George Washington They're talking about the road to Canada by way of the Mrs. Floyd It was not founded on my imagination It was not self-refuge which may be suggested I live near the line So Bailey Our picture of Bailey is telling George Washington Hey, it's possible to cut this road through the woods of Vermont So Bailey sends his nephew February 1776 They're going to go from an area on the eastern side of the Green Mountains And this is the actual interview with Jacob Bailey's nephew They're going to go from Barnett to Swanson Falls on the Mrs. Floyd River They're leaving from the town of Peachham On the second day we've receded five miles to Peachham Center Two And a lot of this interview, he goes over the path that they took to get to the Mrs. Floyd You'll notice that Joe's Pawn, this reference The town of Woodbury And then it says on the fifth day Good snowshoeing, each of this took And at night camp on the banks of the River Lamoille, the sixth day we arrived at Metcalfe and Swanson So this is another Metcalfe Met I hope this works because I think people will enjoy this This is the Library of Congress And with the Library of Congress you can blow up some of their material Let's go to the Swanson area before Ken This is a Metcalfe Met from 1777 Everybody recognize that sort of area of Swanson Mrs. Floyd River See the road So this was also sort of a light bulb moment You see how that line descends to the east Let's take a look at where it ends up That's in the area of Peachham and Jacob Bailey's settlement on the eastern side of on the eastern side of Vermont Now that's not the famous Bailey-Ason road that's only a section of it Ason builds another road a little bit later on in the war but it's connected to this one Just some other research questions So in I'll be wrapping up soon In this time period The American Revolution is underway The Americans are invading Quebec They go up through the Richelieu river area They actually take Montreal Does anybody know what happens after they take Montreal? What city did they try to take after Montreal? Quebec city And what happens at Quebec city? They fail miserably Well Richard General Richard Montgomery is killed after battles Now why is that significant? I don't know if you know this but the town of Montgomery, Vermont is named after General Richard Montgomery Well, Montgomery is killed So is Montgomery, Alabama After the same time So was the French He was killed So the other side He was killed Oh, the French and native So Arnold Command falls to Arnold Arnold gets injured in the leg So he's kind of taken out The Americans lay siege to Quebec city but it's in the middle of the winter and they're really not able to do anything The Americans are rushing reinforcements up through and does anybody know why the American invasion of Quebec basically fails, figures out There's two reasons They were hoping that the French citizens of Quebec would join the American but they never did So there's actually three reasons They also lost about half of their troops on the way up the journey up from there Smallpox Smallpox So we all live in an era where like disease is a real threat We're having this presentation outside because of that damn disease Smallpox at the time was worse Smallpox would completely wipe out entire regiments One of the reasons why the American invasion of Quebec fails is because that army they can't deal with the British reinforcements that are coming over by ship but a lot of them may get sick and I'll talk about that, that'll be one of the things I wrap up with, but there's a company of men again, folks, small town remodern when you learn that something that is connected to about Forge or Ticonderoga or Ethan Allen, when you learn that something like that happened in your community it's a nerd mode and I feel really good So the guy who marges his company through Swanson is a guy by the name of James Osgood James Osgood and I'll show you a little bit of a piece of candy about that in a minute Could we research any of his men Has this been traced? We'll take a look at that in a second Is there any other documentation of that road? Did other units use Metcalfe's settlement? What did Metcalfe sell to the Americans? That's still a topic of my research too. We don't know exactly how much Simon Metcalfe sold to the Americans but there is some indication that he did. It was probably by convenience, I don't think he wanted the American Revolution to succeed. It was just the army in place that could buy this lumber so it sold to them and then did the road maybe start at Metcalfe's and help Southeast So just a couple of other things to show which I think are really interesting. So that guy Osgood that I mentioned in the first in the previous slide his company starts out from Newberry on the eastern side of Vermont and they march through the Peacham area, Jills Pond Woodbury and then they come up here on Ancestry they actually have a list of the men who served in Osgood's regiment So as a research vein this is something that sometimes students get frustrated with but sometimes they have fun with it too We could blow up any of these names and have the students try to translate the 1700s right and then they could choose one of these individuals just to see if there's anything else on Ancestry about it. I haven't gotten to this point yet because I just barely discovered this maybe three or four days ago So what ends up happening to Metcalfe and what ends up happening to his son? So this is a letter that is on the website that I mentioned before Don't ask me why it's northern Illinois that has all of these documents but Friday June 28th 1776 this is after the American invasion has failed due to smallpox This is written by Metcalfe Sorry, this is a built Thomas Thompson Metcalfe man is trying to get paid for the goods that Metcalfe sold to the American Earth So this is June 28th This is in the records, this is a primary source document Again there's a picture of the Sauna before it gets burned I don't have artwork yet of it burning but that's one of the plans for the next book So how do I know it was burned? Pittsburgh July 14th 1776 This is from Captain Bronson to General Gates Gates is the general who wins at Saratoga As your honor gave Colonel Warner orders to send the party of men to Cisco Bay to burn Metcalfe mills before he arrived at this post I had sent off the men in scouting parts So as of July 14th we know that the American army wanted to burn Sauna Metcalfe 7 Now I'm going to go back two slides Because he was supplying the British I think they were worried about that So if Sauna Metcalfe is here in Swanton at some point in time during the American Revolution Metcalfe actually builds a road right here and is probably to support the Americans But by 1776 the British are back at St. John and they're fortifying St. John's and that's where the British fleet is going to be built that defeats Arnold at Battle Corp. A The Americans had retreated by this point in time Would the Americans have wanted a sawmill to the English? Just ready for them to use and buy? No, so that note from Gates to Brownson, the Browns and the Gates American soldiers were sent up to burn the sawmill The problem is we don't know when There's no primary source documentation of when that happened And we know it was burned because of Oh, by the way I was able to find the list of soldiers who are in Captain Brownson's company If they were the ones to burn it maybe there's a primary source document from one of these individuals but I haven't been able to find it yet So this is from Simon Metcalfe to Jacob Bailey David Prasberg, so remember I said Prasberg is basically Swanson July 21st of 1776 They mention the Indian River Metcalfe mentions that he had been arrested by the Americans and that he's looking for his apprentice Thomas Thompson, we see his name again But you notice he's writing from Prasberg, he doesn't mention that the sawmill has been burned yet It seems like he would have mentioned that to Jacob Bailey if the sawmill had been burned But then we'll fast forward a little bit and this is close to where I'm going to wrap up So this is from an American colonel to General Gates, again this is the primary source document Honored Sir, the young man Thompson who is a clerk of Mr. Metcalfe and the Frenchman Anthony Gerard arrived here last night, this is in the area of Crown Point, so you don't have to read the rest of that paragraph unless you really do want to, go down to the bottom of that paragraph Later in this particular letter Sorry about that, later in this particular letter this letter from Colonel Partley mentions that Metcalfe's mills has been burned in Swanson Do we know, can we say for certain that it was the Americans that did it, probably but later on Metcalfe testifies that he thought the British did it so we really don't know The sooner they are removed from hence the better Metcalfe's mill has been burnt He lives within five leagues of St. John's He's undoubtedly against us at present That's the American leadership saying that this saw mill has been burned, Metcalfe's probably not with us anymore So one final thing, I'm still researching for the book that I'm writing on Northern Vermont in the American Revolution The book, Ticonderosa has a gem of a primary source It's called Simon Metcalfe's little book And it's a journal written by Simon Metcalfe And I don't think I should show anything that hasn't been published I'll show you some things that have shown up in some other books I guess that's a heck of a piece So that's the cover of Simon Metcalfe's journal And basically Fort Ticonderosa they digitized it for the role purposes and then sent me a draft of it And in that the journal is from that period of the 1780s It's not during the Revolutionary War, it's shortly after but still it's in gold mine as far as researchers concerned So I just want to finish up by saying that as a teacher it is really important for me to make connections with my students and a lot of my students live around the Mississippi River, they live within walking distance of the Mississippi Bay to be able to show them that where they live and grow up, where they throw a football where they play their video games is a location that is directly connected to George Washington and some of the other founding fathers and the entire revolution is really interesting I guess I'll finish with a question Ben Franklin earlier Do any of you know how Ben Franklin is connected with Northern Vermont and the Revolutionary War? Well he did make a trip during the Revolutionary War from Philadelphia up to Montreal Yep And he comes up to Fort Ticonderoga gets on a boat and then they row he spends a night basically off the coast of Alamon goes right past Albert and he's part of the commission that's evaluating whether or not the French Canadians are going to join the American Revolution Ben Franklin is up there for like two days and he's like there's no way the French Canadians are going to support the revolution And as I remember I think one of the people came with him with John Carroll And I think he was the Catholic Yeah he was the Catholic and that was pretty much why he brought him was one of the Carroll families I think if you Maybe Chase was the Catholic I think if you I think the Carroll family I think what was mentioned in the movie American Treasure or else I kind of made a connection something like that but I think the Carroll family was mentioned in the American or national connection So that's book three I'm writing it right now The first draft is due to the history press in January Northern Vermont and the war of 1812 has been out for a little while I do have a couple copies that I'm selling not for myself, I wouldn't make much money I'll be totally honest I've only made about $400 from the books that I've published The history press tells local authors that in order for them to make a profit they have to sell about 700 copies in the first year So if any of you know what the element page is it's a bookstore in Franklin County I've brought copies of the Hidden History of Franklin County If any of you want to buy one there wouldn't be any tax done I said that she would eat the tax so I'm going to purchase I won't make any money from it I'll bring the cash way up to the dollar I'm just doing that for a favor for everybody Any questions to finish up? I just wanted to comment and tie it in with the times that Washington because of the smallpox ravaging his troops insisted that all his troops would be vaccinated There was a universal order and at the time it was not a popular thing because they didn't know really what was going on and some commanding officers said, okay, vaccinate my unit vaccinate is the wrong word I think it was inoculate my unit and they didn't want the other officers to know so they would slit in between the toes and they would put a little bit of smallpox I think I've seen John Adams the HBO series John Adams there's a really awesome there's a really neat scene in there where they're trying to treat smallpox and the Adams family gets the inoculations Any other questions? Wasn't it Cotton Mather? Wasn't it Cotton Mather out of Boston that tried out the smallpox vaccination on the sun and then I don't know the specific name a lot of people they weren't sure Franklin Dunevex Where did you find the Metcalf maps? I've seen one of them but I just can't remember where So the one that had the line on it going through the spine of the Green Mountains that's at the Library of Congress So if you type in Library of Congress and type in Metcalf so that map will be accessible and you can blow it up to see yourself Are they under Metcalf or are they sometimes under Metcalf? So the question is is it Metcalf or Metcalf you probably would have success just typing in Metcalf and then the other one is one that hasn't been published and that's why it was kind of grainy the Bennington Museum actually owns that map that had prats work up here it was sort of a grainy one with the lines on it that I know of and the two that I use but that's a research topic that I'd like to... he was a map maker so the chances are that he did more Any other questions? Everybody wants to talk to Jay you'll be around so we'll be on our way First of all, I don't know if it was mentioned at the beginning but we do have Talbinian television here recording this talk so you can tell some of your friends that it will be available it will be shown on Burlington on their channel but we also will have the link so anybody who is watching this on their computer it's thanks to Talbinian television who recorded this for us and we thank you for that We will be having a book discussion in probably late September maybe early October and we're going to use the new book that came out about two months ago like Ebenezer Allen, Ethan's cousin and Glenn Fay who did the introduction today so if you're interested we do have copies here if you'd like to get a head start to read this and consider joining our book club it's going to be done over Zoom so you'll be able to participate from home that'll be coming up Now in September we normally have our talk on the third Sunday of the month as we are doing it today but in September we are hosting a veterans town meeting here on site so our talk for September will be on the fourth Sunday of the month September 29th and the speaker for that talk while he's making his way forward right now Liam McClone is going to be the speaker and he will be talking about Finian's raid and if you would like to just one or two remarks so we want them to come back for it Thank you So Liam It's tough back to follow after Samarge here so not who as we say Irish well done I hope you're inspiring the youngsters to take up your passion for history because you're doing the kind of thing that I think would make their interest to talk about in the field So did you say the 29th? I thought it was the 29th the fourth Sunday in September I don't know, I haven't checked the calendar the 26th perhaps it'll be the fourth Sunday So we'll be plowing some of the same territory as today's talk but a later era in that 1866 and 1870 the Irish invaded Canada 1866 there was no Canada and there was formed some reaction to the attack by the Finian brother So we're happy to discuss any of that with anybody after it sounds like material for another students or students in the Sysquare to get involved with also We're looking at roads that the Irish took to go up there to say your demonstration of tracing roads It sounds like it's a perfect follow-up to the talk today Did you find the date in September? 26th If you're on our mailing list you'll be getting the notices We do put it out in seven days and so forth Finally, I will be taking a few folks up to the house on a tour so if any of you have not done a tour recently and would like to join us you can do that We'll meet up in the lobby in about two minutes Thank you all for coming The other thing I want to mention is I'm always impressed with the of the people who come here for talks I mean, you guys have very good questions and responses to the questions It's amazing to know it's encouraging to see what folks know about our history here Thank you for coming and I hope you'll keep being involved with us here at the Homestead