Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1858-06-18
ETHAN ALIENS BURIAL PLACE.
WHERE NEXT!

The following letter, published in the Ka
lamazoo. (Mich.) Telegraph of June 9th,
will amuse many Of our readers Possibly
some will find new light from it about the
burial place of Ethan Allen. The Telegraph
says the writer of the communication is the
pastor of the Methodist Episcopal church in
Kalamazoo. We presume Mrs. Ayres Ba
Allen stated honestly enough her present i'm
pressions about what she may have heard,
many years ago, concerning Ethan Aliens
death and burial, but if correctly reported
by Mr.. Comfort, they are as wide of the
truth as the other ridiculous stories which
have been put ahoat on the subject, and per-
haps no more so. Mr.. Comfort thinks her
recollections entirely reliable. As to all tina
is essential in the case they are entirely un
reliable. 1t may interest her to be informed
that Ethan Allen, father of Hannibal Allen,
was living at the time Of his death on what,
for the last forty years or more, has been
called the Van Ness farm, in the north part
of this town, and that he was buried in this
town, with military honors, on the 18th of
February 1889.
Mr. Comfort, we presume, had not seen
lished in the Bennington Gazette and in the
Vermont journal. If he had, he would have
observed that the account was sent from
Burlington. There was no newspaper put-
lshed in Burlington till some years after
that time.
Mr.. EplroR II seq from the press generally.
that there is considerable dispute as to the true
resting place Of the remains Of Ethan Allen. l
hope by this communication to throw some light
on this sub ject; and first allow to say that
have no interest in this question except that the
truth Of history may be ascertained, and his re-
mains, if possible be found. My informant is
Mrs. Ayres B. Allen, an aunt of my wife, and the
widow Of Captain Hannibal Allen, Gen. Aliens
eldest SON. She is now my guest, and in all mat
tiers pertaining to her early life, her recollection is
very distinct and think, entirely reliable. Shesays
that in frequent conversations with Mrs Dr. Penni-
man, she understood that Ethan Allen lived in
Bennington at the time of Hannibal Aliens birth
and until his death, and that he pas buried AZ
Bennington, and not at Burlington, as is generally
supposed. She also says that while visiting Mrs
Penniman, she at the Doctors house the mar
Bile slab which the DR.. had caused to be placed at
Ethan Aliens grsye-but it was not set at the
time, because, as she thinks, of the difficulty Of
transporting IT to Bennington at that of the
year. She thinks this was in the fall of 1916 and
Mrs Penniman then lived at Cochester-that in
none of her visits to her mother-in-aw, was her
father-in-laws grave pointed out to her which GER
tainly would have been done if it had been in the
vicinity of Colchester or Burlington.
By what means the marble slab afterwards came
to be set in " Green Mount Cemetery" she does
not know, but supposes that it was understood at
the time that the remains Of Ethan Allen did not
rest beneath that stone, she has never heard il
intimated that his remains were ever removed
from Bennington to that place.
She also says that her husband, Hannibal Allen.
always spoke of Bennington as the place at which
his father was buried.
Mr.. Editor, these views seem to be confirmed by
the fact that the account of his funeral was pub
lished in Bennington paper instead of one at
Burlington.
Yours truly,
wM. c. COMFORT.
Kalamazoo, June sth, 1885.