Show GREEN P N MOUNTAIN STATE t t V I 1 at I 1 fl tuf IT I 1 t it 44 v A pw C little country store in a back room of which calvin coolidge was born prepared by national society washington D C ca corvi c e ERMONT to which the nation V VERMONT t turned relent recently ly ai as the last resting place of calvin coolidge has a story different from that of 0 most of its sister states its story Is more than a recital ot of statistics it Is more than a review of 0 the number of organs and scales manufactured there annually and far more interesting than an estimate of the number of miles of public buildings which could be faced each year with its marble and granite and roofed with its slate it has elements of a drama it has faced not seen but seventy lean years in the seventy bears years from isio 0 to 1020 the census returns show that the population increased only from to or a little more than 32 12 per cent during this same period the increase for the united states as a whole was more than per cent in the ten years from 1910 1010 to 1020 the number of vermonters Ver actually decreased yet tet the future seems bright enough to the men and women of hiie the green mountains the outsider may perhaps be forgiven it lie he hopes that its prosperity shall be no more than modest and that it shall not interfere greatly with ver monts present status for it Is today one of the most truly american of our states its people have hardly changed in their essential elements in a century barely one in nine Is foreign born and the majority of these are canadian and therefore american vermontis Ver monts drama Is rooted roofed in that fact its people are a dynamic lot hard hitting bitting resourceful energetic restless in the census of 1490 1780 it was shown that of the total population of approximately were of english stock and 2000 scotch its young men left the oncoming years brought few different factors the names one finds today in vermont were on the earliest records there was little to be candid about it in vermont to tempt immigration in the last fifty years of the past century there was everything outside to tempt emigration the young men left just as young scotsmen go to london iolas rich prairies called the farmer who had stumbled over vermontis Ver monts rocky lulls hills once famed for merino sheep it became the inheritor of the spanish crown when the royal flocks were dissipated under the threat of napoleons invasion it saw them disappear under the pressure of necessity sheep held on costly land and fed seven months in the year cannot compete with those grazed on free land the year round the estates located in rich bottom lands were hold held of course but in the pioneer days farmers built cabins on hill shoulders for the sake of the early morning reassurance of a neighbors plume of smoke across the valley many of these hill farms became economically impossible today the dairy cow Is taking the place sheep once held in vermontis Ver monts scheme of things the cow must be fed all winter long but she abundantly repays milk trains squeak through the winter snows to gather cans at every crossroad milk trains roar through the early dawn bound tor for the great eastern cities this achievement has only lately been made possible by the creation of new transportation facilities her enormous marble industry one shrinks from comparative statements but vermont Is very certain there can be no greater marble quarries in the world had not been thought of tho the dignified statehouse at mont the capital was built of granite from the famous quarries which have wade made vermont the leader amon among the states in the value of this stone supplied for monumental and structural purposes rich in marble and granite so if one sees nothing else in vermont m ont today he should see the marble qua quarries aries and the granite works w here armies of skilled men equipped with the latest engineering appliances wrest huge blocks of stone from the states rich mountain sides many families were literally starved out of the village of lowell in northern vermont in tile the early days wagon trains left for kentucky and the western reserve no one then knew of the vast beds of asbestos in that part inart of the state so with tale talc and slate nod and the other mineral riches which are now being slowly developed nor did anyone suspect that her rounded bills find lovely dales would some time offer a promising vacation ground at a profit to the thousands in the great cities with blui in a few hours ride today vermont Is a cheerful sunny independent little state in which abich life admittedly presents more difficulties than in the lands wherein one may live on breadfruit but it Is more worth while it la Is distinctly not given to hero worship and it has a humor that might trace to its caledonian pioneers A calm clear commonwealth tt it is too with a distaste for rebellion against constituted authority but with a one fine capacity for it on occasion willing that each shall worship god in his own way intent upon getting the dollars worth but not falsely valuing the dollar hospitable as are few states in these days of the easy road every town has its peak not a single town in vermont Is without its eminence there are approximately WO peaks whose summits are 0 2000 feet or more above sea level the northeast corner an area perhaps 50 miles by 50 la Is in effect a wilderness rears roam there and deer and landlocked salmon are to be caught in lakes rarely seen by man elsewhere the mountains seem more hospitable the tallest mount mansfield 4 93 feet high can be reached by automobile over goof good abou though steep steel roads and all ail are accessible to hikers this Is a state of lakes lake qt too for there are approximately from lake champlain Champl aln miles long between the green mountains and the adirondacks to mere potholes potholed pot holes gleaming in hill fastnesses fast nesses and of little rapid rivers which slow down here and there into placid reaches where the hungry trout leap at dawn abone As one rides through the state the remains of old water mills are t to be seen moss grown picturesque a warped wheel clattering in a ruined race now they are an invitation to the artist with them are weathered gray houses clustered about by forgotten orchards and dim roads that seem to lead nowhere through tangled woods one ot of these days one tears fears there will be humming turbines where the little old mills are now dow falling into decay factories will replace the sagging rooftrees roof trees of the old houses whether we ave like it or not this is an age of progress and these hillside hlll hIl fide leide rills and spring fed mountain lakes will ultimately be harnessed for thirteen years vermont was an independent republic making its own laws maintaining its own army coining its own money it was as a contumacious tuma cious clous and stiff necked community for during tills this period it was not only in rebellion against england but was carrying on a lively private fight 0 of its own with the state of new I 1 york ork and th the e continental congress A historian records that vermont was never anything but free never a crown colony never yielding allegiance to any province state or kingdom when she was admitted as the fourteenth state to the american union after the revolution had been won by her loyal aid it was upon her own terms Cham plains voyage ner her written history be begins ins on july 4 some say july 14 1609 on which debatable date samuel tie de champlain Champl aln discovered the lake which bears his bis name and which Is 13 our largest body ot of fresh water outside the great lakes on that voyage the de cham plain fought with his algonquin hosts against the iroquois and so assured the friendship of the latter powerful tribe to the british who were to come later it has been argued that this may have decided the future over lording of this continent who knows the first french settlements on oil isle la motto were not permanent white men did not come to stay until 1624 when settlers who had seeped in from the massachusetts ray nay colony built a blockhouse at fort dummer near the site of the present city ot of brattle bore here timothy dw ight was born in 1720 three of his descendants through his marriage with mary daughter of rev nev jonathan edwards Edw aids were to become presidents of yale this Is worth noting because vermont talks more of her aen men than 0 of o her marble or slate or granite more ilore than once Is the cautious statement vermont hits has furnished a greater number of men to chos who relative to population than any other state it if one begins to name the distinguished sons of the state one fears to ile be overwhelmed yet it must he be remembered that for decades they were almost the only exportable product and hare left their traces everywhere through american history |