thank you everyone for coming so we're going to have the lights off like this initially to do a short slide show that gary irish has collected photos over time and it travels brown trace from where clark's truck center is at route fifteen towards the richmond line and i'm not really going to talk about the photos but you can just sort of see if you can figure out where they are along browns trace and then after that there's going to be a short fourteen minute video that none of us at seeing and actually maybe i could have you talk about the program  this is the first of a series that we've produced over at mt mansfield community t v about the history of local roads and this one is about brown's trace and it's by a young man called matthew pull the ski who was an v this summer and sort of theirs in turns and in turns and he just took the ball off and running and interviewed many of you in this room for this video and i think you'll really be impressed by his work and how many hours of footage for this to fourteen minutes while his mom is here and i think it was over twenty hours of footage at least and including some aerial footage of this little aerial device that he enjoys using a lot so enjoy and i just wanted to mention that this series is made possible with a grant by the vermont community foundation and we're able to pay young people in the area to make films about the history of local roads so tonight is very exciting for us and then when we turn the lights back on we'll talk more about the road naming committee and brooks buxton is here he's already done a write up of the history of some of the road names and i think that will kind of lead us off on our discussion but the value of everyone's discussion in the for everyone and it was such a and still to this day such a welcoming place for the community everything it was  looking around the store now you can see the outsides of it still look the same as it might have one hundred years ago after the fire but looking inside you can see that the contents of store have on the contrary changed i think really you know there's been a drastic change you know the last twenty or so years i mean the four before that the store really served as you know the home of the center and it sold pretty much everything because people there were no wal marts really you know thirty years ago there wasn't home depot so the store had really everything imaginable had hardware you know upholstery had brochure ease that had animal feed on that really had everything but really with the advent of you know the home depots the wal mart's all the convenience stores the big box stores cropping up everywhere and we really had to you know people started going elsewhere they could get it cheaper so we really you know the past twenty years ten years really the stores kind of shifted its focus to stuff like that but it's not jam packed full everything we get used to be that's really you know a glorified old fashioned convenience store now that's what it's become when learning about that aspect of brown's trace i realized that i hadn't facts learned what small family owned this is were like but i wasn't satisfied i still didn't quite have the bigger in the next part of my trip i wanted to take a step back to the residential parts of brown in order to looking around brown strace i wanted to know what the people felt about the community and what the atmosphere felt like to them when i asked the locals questions like these i realize the majority of them talked about how it has changed  bit and over the twenty years i notice the traffic is much more it's much busier now than it was twenty some years ago and i'm sure it will last fifteen years it's so far we have taken at a local business on brown street and the road yet still we have one more trip to make and this may have been what i was waiting for this whole time that's right the history and then i think jericho will be heading in the right direction for many years to come this has been another episode of memory  that excellent presentation which we just had by the high school student it's very rewarding to hear a young person speak correctly and so articulate i guess there's hope well i made this sort of study two or three years ago can everyone hear me and request of jessica alexander who one of her many roles as town clerk also takes a very keen interest in the town's history it's rather chronological probably take me ten minutes i guess to go through it  jericho center at the chabon house where the alexanders lived on march twenty second seven hundred eighty six to elect town officers and warned to meet again on the second tuesday of june next on june thirteenth seventeen eighty six at ten o'clock in the morning to choose three surveyors of highways as in the case of early school districts it was found that the matter of navigable roads could be handled by greater fairness by dividing the town into highway districts each drawing its revenue for road work from a tax on the ground less the first move in this direction by the town seem to have been shortly previous to eighteen two for the for in that year it was voted to accept the seven school districts brought forward by the select men eventually jericho would have as many as sixteen school districts and by eight hundred forty one jericho had thirteen highway districts each with his own highway surveyor the first major bridge in jericho was across the browns river at jordan mills the old red mill in the early eighteenth hundreds in the year eight hundred thirty two years eight hundred thirty two to eight hundred thirty six three petitions were made to the select board for additional new bridges across browns river and covered bridge near underhill flats riverside road and squires and dick live just beyond that the flood of nine hundred twenty seven took out several smaller bridges or severely weakened the abutments of bridges on levy river millbrook and highway and forty bridges in the town of jericho the repair and upkeep of which is maintained by the town katherine how many miles do we have today that's  the manuscript and survey map yes then of course they all were gravel the manuscript and survey roads of ramana from the one nine hundred seventy s until the eight hundred fifty s are sketchy on jericho roads except for the detailed map of the town of jericho dated july fourteenth eight hundred twelve officially surveyed for the select man by john johnson seven hundred seventy one eight hundred forty two surveyor general of vermont he followed ethan allen he was from burlington and he lives later in essex junction and his house is on the road going towards agway at the five corners it's that brick house just before you turn left to go to i b m the original map is in the john johnson papers and  his papers and special collections of daily how a library at the university of vermont a photographic copy of this important john johnson map is on display in the town clerk's office which i arranged to have it done and a copy a smaller version is here with us this evening in the eight hundred forty s nine hundred fifty three months town and country wall maps in indicated roads and other physical features were beginning to be published notably henry f walling series of county wall maps and following the civil war atlases years and panoramic bird's eye view of the gilded era became more available jericho roads are delineated and many of these maps and a and those of the three villages with remarkably detailed indexes these maps were drawn by laffey at wilbur jericho attorney and in one thousand nine hundred he wrote and published a four volume history of vermont dreadfully families in the nineteenth century and probably right up until world war two bally williams and then his grandfather was sort of the gilded era mogul of jericho and one of the wealthier families perhaps and outside of burlington in the jericho underhill cambridge area there do not appear to be any specific road names in jericho directly attributable to native american pathways the union river road vermont route one seventeen now simply called the river road in both jericho and in essex and of course brown's trace are obvious precursors which please predate white encroachment and wilderness settlement as the early settlers further north from the lower new england states and new hampshire seeking fertile productive farmland along the connecticut river and lake champlain valley the naming of jericho town roads follows the brown hannah his wife and four sons came to what is now jericho then they will in this portion of the new hampshire grants from great barrington massachusetts having been born in watertown connecticut in seven hundred seventy four he purchased land rights in what is now stow they attempted to reach their property by the old indian trail up the connecticut river and white rivers to the head waters of the onion river and now the one who skate down which they pass toward l champlain failing to turn from the river to the north as soon as they should they found themselves on the west side of mt mansfield instead of their objective point on the east side pleased with the delightful situation of the land and no doubt far from the far from anxious to reach grace their weary march around the mountain they pitched their tents on the banks of the river that bears their name later purchasing the rights of the land that's preempted hence bro strays which as faithfully served this day as a major arterial road it is interesting to note said earlier this evening that through the years brown straits has also been known as simply the richmond road or the jericho road the onion river road known today as simply the river road route one seventeen also has considerable historic importance for jericho and ramallah the river road is flanked by fertile river bottom opposite side banks in willesden both sons played a significant role in jericho and vermont's formative years with governor martin sheen and serving in the u s congress as well his older brother martin's his handsome federal brick house was built and standing ninety seven and is known today as the gent and has brick martin house his brothers know and his brother know as brick house was located diagonally across the onion river road and burned down in the mid nineteenth century colonel jetman was the largest land holder in vermont in jericho and considered to be one of the largest land holders in the state as i mentioned previously up the hill to jericho center via the barber farm road named after edgar a rude settled upon in seven hundred seventy four when he came to jericho as one of the first of the three pioneer families for many years they conducted a summer boarding place in the edgar barber farm and gues settled on the upper reaches of the river and the road which bears their name john lee was the first person to be buried in the jericho center cemetery after world war one hundreds of acres of land in this really part of jericho w the purpose of this lease was to provide an area to practice gunnery and to fire cannons in the one nine hundred twenty s the cannons were drawn by teams of horses generally three pairs to each cannon and the supplies hauled by three pairs of mules to each covered wagon many times the soldiers walk the enter our distance from forty three on to the range in jericho to practise warfare this of course was in the era of plain dirt and gravel roads without the benefit of  the dilemma of housewives from the dust came in their direction the welsh shod horses the big wheeled wagons and case ons churned up a mighty cloud of dust other examples of early settlers families rode names off for instance polish corpus packard seven hundred sixty eight eight hundred thirty six who came to jericho with his family and seven hundred ninety four from plainfield connecticut he settled on what was known as the packer district and of course the road which bears his name seven generations of the pack and family had been associated with the town of jericho the packers also lived in the brick house where the niggly on a close do now across from the town office his great grandson arthur h packard was the president of the vermont farm bureau for twenty five years and also served as a director of the american farm bureau he resided in jericho all his life and his son arthur age back in jr known as joe operated the farm in the jer pioneers in the settlement located along the millbrook valley now known as nashville and the road which is named after these early settlers the governor packed road in the southern part of town is named after the second jericho citizen to was governor for the term eight hundred seventy four eight hundred seventy six silly hill silly hill road was originally settled by william cell a family who came to jericho in seventy ninety five from poultney vermont and their descendants lived on the two neighboring farms on the road which bears their name that would be the brick house at the bottom of silly hill on the right where the davis family live now and the white family was there for many years their son professor of course was the famous headmaster of the jericho academy which was in existence up until one thousand nine hundred three in the mid to late nineteenth century irish and european immigrant immigrants began to settle in jericho for example the john williams that simon's family came to the country an eight hundred fifty seven from county died down ireland and moved to underhill his son john moved to jericho in one thousand nine hundred two settling on what would become the home farm located in jericho center his two sons andrew and james who i remember were successful farmers and select board members there lived all their lives on two adjoining farms on the road which is named after the family carol still hammer had immigrated from germany to jericho in eight hundred eighty seven and resided on the old charles hilton farm on the height of the road named after his family his brothers john and william had also immigrated to jericho from germany a few years earlier and became well to do farmers and excellent citizens john's shell hammer resided on the old shit and dilution of farm it's now her robert and little strength as he  road and he was also the road commissioner for fifteen years john still am or using one to three teams of horses to maintain the roads and all seasons of the year his granddaughter eleanor she'll have a merrill edited volume to the history of jericho in one thousand nine hundred sixty three with the growth of jericho's population after world war two and the decline of dairy farms new housing developments were built in the town on a former developer or the town providing new paved roads for these residential neighborhoods the select board was cognizant of the importance of the existing familiar names of jericho roads and bridges and in  six an official road naming committee was appointed to codify and to record these road names the committee based its selection of road names on many of the historical names which we've mentioned this evening long  use as well sop to update and to select new road names for the towns records the results of the committee's deliberations were officially published in march nine hundred sixty seven on the cover of the annual town report for the year nine hundred sixty six and at that time new wooden road signs were erected to mark all of the officially designated roads throughout the town as the town's population continue to grow and with a need for new roads it is interesting to know that nearly two hundred years later the name from bradley mo road was selected from a direct reference to bradley bow on the onion river which appears on the eight hundred twelve john johnson survey map of jericho and also on the onion river land company records of the allen family the new road is now opposite bradley bow and is a living testimony of the historical role that roads and bridges contribute to the character of the town in closing this article is dedicated to all the surveyors of highways and road commissioners and their crews since seventy nine hundred six who ha faithfully maintained our roads and bridges whether by oxen horses or truck in all kinds of weather and budgetary constraints thank you and i remember well the celebration was held where jericho each just today was and the carpenter farm the carpenter farm is on route fifteen there just before the jerry  hill hardware store and that was where we had our baseball diamond and there was a just like tonight there was an exciting and baseball game of jericho folks against the four corners near which i understand is near boulder and it was just a small not a gore jessica you know it's a small piece of land that was claimed by both towns but just sort of a sliver and the two but it was a brief which was you know years ago the plains road everyone is familiar i think silly hill in jericho pleasant valley of course everyone is familiar church street it was still being used in my day and give you a few hits what street in the town of jericho has several churches lead river the raceway which is deadly jericho leads to riverside to undergo because they were theoretically they had horse races soapie probably not i would think and in jericho carter's were very handsome late eighteenth century early nineteenth century brick federal churches and there would be i think conserving more attractive in that architectural style than what we have today years for students who excel in the grammar school i guess i was one of those persons the flats everyone would just imagine a mess hall and stables for that probably half covered for the many many horses they used in lumbering and then of course bumps or a boarding i would assume it's in the northern part of town i do i'd probably would be more that way in that it would be with hogs i think we use the term pig i think more here in one thousand century agricultural circuits all you raised hogs but you had  but i don't know where and i've looked at quite a few maps trying to find riverside squirrels well that's another one too that i couldn't find anything  some of these might be a little bit jokey in the sense that you like beyond these jesus this sort of thing the corners was used much more than it is today and we don't say it is a list certainly it was very much a common term topographically when i grew up you'd say the center you didn't say jericho center  and you also said the corners and where you don't hear that today very much i think you say i'm from the center perhaps but we don't hear the phrase i live in the corner hope it's been informative now a discussion in jericho and i think one of the proponents kind of behind naming the rhodes joni alexander is the oldest daughter right and she shared a story she would go to town meeting but she would often they had three during the year and when his dad came back he said well this is they want to call this pratt road which the pratt farm was at the end where can a very stable says no and i guess it was done today that was a huge proponent to name one of some of the first farms on the road and i was hoping walter send would be here tonight he had a farm on governor peck and he remembers that there was a little bit of talk about naming it send road and ended guess you can still see in the basement where the tunnel was but a tunnel out to the river and so when they were raided during prohibition they could escape and don fehr share that story a lot he bought it and so i want to go over to this corner because we have her on the end of fields lane and then mclaughlin is grandson right milo white and you really have an understanding of where they could through all logging roads are sure in roads or places like that so at that time it was my understanding that my yard which is now a dead end road was a four way intersection and that connected over the hill into my little boy and it connected over the hill to snipe island road and it connected down to the  the stone that they ground the grain is still in the in the ledge right there when the thing collapsed that fell down in but that road was an intersection i assume because the only way to get across the river was to go up the river far enough till road was shallow and the river was shallow enough where they could pass through and as far as the stage coming through there  i guess if you are coming from richmond there was a connecting stage up in west bolton and that road came over the hill from jonesville area and that's why they call that the stage road and i have assume that a body that was headed toward richmond they could  in certain times a year they they couldn't get through unless they went up the hill high enough to get away from the deep water and so that's that's where i  believe that a lot of these roads exist because they just had to go that's where the the main stage route from worcester mass to montreal followed the ridge to line most of the way to get past all the major rivers they had to go up until it was shallow enough where they could cross without a bridge and so that would be my belief  makes a lot of sense and it also was go down between well like when they cut across where the range is to go to underhill that was part of the direct route from the jonesville stage road across up through underhill is because they stayed on the high ground to get passively river and and the other and eventually the moyle i assume so that that would be my  understanding of why roads exist where they do is because they went where they could in the vicinity of the civil war and that was the owner and they picked that name off the map assigned to our road it was always town road twenty nine before that started my look little something like maybe it was an old log road but he picked it up and he walked it and he walked far enough to the turn to go down to her hay when you drive a tractor you can actually drive vehicle we've had log trucks come through in fact to give you an example in the seventy's there was that we had a neighbor that had one of those prefab houses all scheduled to be delivered and at that time the fields lane bridge there was a beam that broke and they couldn't get through and they actually cleared it enough so that they could give a bring two halves of this modular home over the hill to bring it to this fellow's site and that was like i said when you couldn't get through you had to go over that hill that the only picture yet here once more which is important to note in the earlier part of my sort of presentation or spiel you noticed how practical these early i'm sure it was this way many other vermont towns both in the school districts and the size of the highway district because of the road conditions and the difficulty of moving about in the early nineteenth century  streams again is this gentleman pointed out had a serious role to play that people just simply could not get about i mean you so therefore you had thirteen school districts in the  and each season of the year and the same with a road commissioner would just have with his team of horses be responsible let's say for nashville or for north underhill fo bowl they just couldn't get around i don't suppose it was really up till probably well after the civil war maybe even up to world war one that roads really became passable on a daily basis living on violin road to restore the roads original name snipe ireland road the story is told of an irish bride in the late eighteenth hundreds her new husband took her to the pond off that road where she was to live seeing the snipe in the pond she we mined she was reminded of her homeland and exclaimed oh snipe firelands so that's the story on the back of the home towns quizzes that is a list of jericho roads and i know we probably want to start wrapping up but is there any particular road that stands out that someone wants to hear a story know i think you know i think that's rather unfortunate the john davis well the john davis family which was there of course they were john's father a african american who came up with the coburn family the colburn's were wealthy ladies from baltimore who was a summer place the davis farm and they had an african american young man who worked for them then he stayed on the they left the farm to him and he married lois she'll have albertville ammar sister which course because my concern in the town at the time i guess and then there were the davis family own the farm until here just recently the last what ten fifteen years ago and they were very good farmers very solid citizens and john was very active in the for age and older role youth so i think this is such an unfortunate term something that governor perry i think would use school house and over a mile away that road on the corner was a school house so that's why the road went with a wet is because if you had to get around any time of the year and you know where somebody's going to school that was important that they got there on time