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Show storied mighlights If SMno Scott Medio (Released by Western Newspaper Union.) Vermont Has a Birthday THIS year marks the 150th birthday birth-day of the state of Vermont which shares with Texas the distinction dis-tinction of having been an independent independ-ent republic before she entered the sisterhood of states. But Vermont has another distinction. Although she is listed as the "fourteenth state" she can claim a "first" that of being the first admitted to the federal Union when the "Thirteen Original States" came into existence through the adoption of the Constitution Consti-tution in 1787. The history of Vermont goes back 250 years to the English settlement at Vernon in 1690. At that time this region was known as the "New Hampshire Grants" and was a part of the colony of New Hampshire, which had been separated from the colony of Massachusetts by royal charter 10 years previously. m ,sT1 ft Stamp issued this year to commemorate com-memorate the 150th anniversary of Vermont's admission to the Union. About the middle of the Eighteenth Eight-eenth century, after the wars with the French and Indians were over, groups of sturdy young men set out from Connecticut and Massachusetts with their families to make their homes .in the frontier country between be-tween the "New Hampshire Grants" and the colony of New York. It was not long, however, until these settlers learned to their dismay that the British colonial courts had declared de-clared their land titles invalid and that "York State lawyers" were obtaining ob-taining writs from the courts to dispossess dis-possess them. But these freedom-loving freedom-loving pioneers had no intention of giving up the little farms which they had cleared in the wilderness without with-out fighting for them. The climax came in July, 1771. Visit the town of Westminster, Vt., today and you will see there a granite gran-ite monument bearing a bronze tablet tab-let which tells you that here is the "Birthplace of Vermont." It says: "Near this site stood the homestead of Lieut. James Breakenridge. After years of peaceable possession, his farm was claimed by New York speculators. A sheriff and over 300 men came from Albany to evict him from his home. Aided by men from Bennington, a brave defense was made without bloodshed, proving to be a Declaration of Independence of the State of Vermont, July 19, 1771." During this time, too, a group of determined frontiersmen, who called themselves the "Green Mountain Moun-tain Boys," organized to resist the aggression of their neighbors and chose Ethan Allen as their leader. The spirit that animated James Breakenridge and Ethan Allen and the other "Green Mountain Boys" still burned brightly in the hearts of Vermonters when the quarrel with England came to a crisis in 1775. So in May of that year the redoubtable re-doubtable Ethan and 80 of his men made a dash against Fort Ticonde-roga, Ticonde-roga, broke in upon the astonished British commander and demanded that he surrender "in the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Conti-nental Congress." This spectacular feat did not mean, however, that the Vermonters were going to link their fortunes with the other colonists in the fight for freedom. They didn't join them in the historic session at Philadelphia Philadel-phia on July 4, 1776. But a year later they did some independence-declaring independence-declaring of their own. On July 2, 1777, they held a convention con-vention at Windsor, in a house which is known today as the "Old Constitution Consti-tution House," to draw up a constitution consti-tution for a state that would be independent, inde-pendent, not only of Great Britain but of all other American colonies also. The delegates were in session there on July 8 when news came that Burgoyne's army had recaptured recap-tured Ticonderoga. So great was their alarm at this news that they were on the point of adjourning the convention when a terrific thunderstorm came up. It held them indoors and they, quickly finished up the business at hand. Incidentally, the constitution which they adopted at that time was the first on this continent to prohibit human hu-man slavery. Thus Vermont began its career as an independent republic repub-lic and it continued as such until March 1, 1791. when it was admitted admit-ted to the new United States of America as our fourteenth state. Vermont's nickname of the "Green Mountain state" dates from 1763 when the Rev. Samuel Peters, standing on the summit of Mt. Pis-gah, Pis-gah, christened the country "Verd Mont" (Green Mountain). So Ethan Allen called his frontiersmen "green mountain boys." They had worthy successors in the Vermonters under the command of Gen. John Stark, who defended the freedom that had been declared on July 8, 1777. by winning a great victory over a detachment de-tachment from Burgoyne's army at the Battle of Bennington less than a month later. |